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Last Sunday the AFLUA  hosted its annual luncheon in Brisbane .

Peter Matheson or “Matho” as he was known to his mates, was a larger than life figure that began his career on the VFL panel in 1966 until his retirement in 1975.  During that time he officiated in 25 VFL matches, 37 reserves games, 156 VCFL games including 11 grand finals.  He joined the VFL/AFL field umpires observing panel a position he held between 1976 and 1987.

Round 8 saw the first game for premiership points played outside of Australia and New Zealand. Shanghai, China was the venue for the historic Gold Coast v Port Adelaide game. Seventeen umpires and officials made up the touring party who were fortunate to be chosen to represent the AFL.

Chris Kamolins celebrates his 200th AFL game when he heads down to Simmonds Stadium for the Geelong v Adelaide game on Friday night.

Joining Mark Foster as the equal fastest boundary umpire to reach 200 AFL games in 8 years and 65 days, is Chris Gordon when he takes to the field for the Port Adelaide v Hawthorn game at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.

Congratulations to two of our rookies on the weekend who were selected to umpire the VFL v WAFL state game played at Port Melbourne on Saturday.  Matt Adams (WA) and Daniel Butcher (VFL) have both represented their states in games played over the past few seasons.  The Vics who have had little success to brag about in recent seasons at a state level again succumbed to a strong WA unit.  Congratulations to all umpires who were selected for the game.

An extremely rare event occurred at 4pm on Sunday, the crowd around the umpires race in the Essendon v WCE game stood and applauded the umpires as they left the field.  Shaun Ryan and Simon Meredith looked bemused, Eleni took it in and enjoyed the experience.  The football public had spoken.  They understood better than most, the enormity of what had just occurred.

“Breaking down the barriers – It’s about what brings us together rather than what sets us apart”. That’s the message from Dave Harris, current AFL field umpire and Sports Administrator of the Geelong Umpires ahead of Saturday’s ninth annual Encompass Cup, where a panel of umpires with varying disabilities will officiate the clash between Belmont Lions and Winchelsea Blues.