News

Boundary umpire, Chris Esler umpired his 100th AFL game on Friday night in the North Melbourne v Collingwood clash at Etihad Stadium. After looking at the appointments in some detail I smiled when I saw the other boundary umpires listed. The other three boys all came onto the AFL list in 2011 or 2012, Morrison (2011) Tomkins and Jenkinson (2012) have all umpired around the 100 games and two of the four come from the Western Region Football League. The four boys are extremely competitive and have formed a close bond through their time on the list. Chris becomes the 133rd boundary umpire in the history of the game to umpire 100 games. (See the website later in the week for more on Chris)

Sixteen years on from his first game in 2001, Scott “Rove” Jeffery umpired his 300th AFL match becoming the 40th umpire (20th field umpire) to achieve that milestone.  Scott has been a model of consistency during his time on the list with the exception of the odd niggling calf injury.  His two good mates, Justin Schmitt (320 games) and Chris Kamolins (182 games) were there to share the game with him.  Scott has “seen it and done it” all over those years.  Two overseas exhibition games in London and Shanghai, four NAB Cup grand finals, AFLUA president and currently part of the AFLUD leadership group, Scott has stood up to be counted.  Congratulations on a great milestone Scott (see the website later this week for Scott’s view of his time on the list. 

Generations of umpires and their partners attended the AFLUA 2016 Queensland lunch at the Lord Stanley Hotel in Brisbane on Sunday 10 July.

It is with great sadness that we advise you of the passing of two life members.

Evergreen field umpire, Shaun Ryan umpired his 250th AFL day game up on the Gold Coast last weekend.  Shaun, who is just loving his involvement back in the AFL, ran around with two young guns, David Harris and Brent Wallace who were in awe of his performance.  “Umpiring with Shaun is a great experience, he is so composed out there on the ground, I have learned so much,” reflected David when we caught up with Shaun during a small celebration after the game.  Shaun now sits 30th in order of all time number of games umpired by a field umpire.  However when it comes to number of finals he sits equal 12th (25) with two other current field umpires, Matt Stevic and Shane Mc Inernery, but equal 5th of all time when you include his 5 grand finals.

Dillon has followed his passions through two states to umpire AFL football. His first passion umpiring, began in Adelaide in his teenage years, before following his second passion, Eleni Glouftsis to Melbourne in 2015 while she works towards an AFL contract as the first female field umpire.

The AFL is now pondering whether to introduce the system in 2017 following the 18 game trial. Reactions have been mixed but one thing to come from the trial is that matches were not “over umpired” which was always one of the concerns when you add another dimension into the mix. Anecdotally, the umpires certainly felt fresher coming out of games and didn’t take as long to recover. The seven umpires who doubled up were all mentally fatigued by the end of their second matches. Now the AFL will crunch its numbers and deliver its verdict.

How do you know when the time is right to give it away?  That is the loaded question all great athletes must deal with and so too our own Darren Wilson.

Our Fiona McBurney match day participant, Brad stole the show after the game on Saturday at the “G” and according to his father, Glen, it wasn’t the first time! Get a look at Brad’s post match speech on our website. Brad misses no one, Dean Margetts, Ray Chamberlain, our goal umpires for not working hard enough. We wish Brad all the best as he is about to travel to Italy to represent Australia in the Down Syndrome Swimming titles.