Former VFL umpire Murray Bird has produced a book called “Athenians and Red Invincibles” it tells the story of the beginnings of football in the north of Australia in 1866.
News
Rob’s 250 game milestone in dreamtime at the “G”
Boundary umpire Rob Haala ran under the spotlight at the MCG on Saturday night with the footy focusing on the centre piece of the indigenous round, Dreamtime at the G and the great 400 game milestone of Dustin Fletcher.
Round 9 shorts
Highly experienced boundary umpire Rob Haala umpired his 250th AFL game in a significant encounter at the MCG on Saturday night, dreamtime at the G. Rob moves into 15th place in total number of VFL/AFL games umpired by boundary umpires. Rob joins Aaron Deckys (259), Jonathan Creasey (280), John Morris (290), Mark Thomson (307) and Darren Wilson (381) as current running boundary umpires who have more than 250 games to their credit.
Hosko hits 50
“I never expected to make the AFL panel on my first attempt after umpiring the 2011 VFL grand final. I had only umpired 38 senior VFL games and it was my first final series, but you would never turn down the opportunity,” reflected Brendan today when he thought about his introduction to AFL football.
Reflections on the day with Isabel Fitzgerald
As Hawthorn premiership defender Grant Birchall and Melbourne captain Nathan Jones shake hands before the pre-game coin toss, participating in awe is 19-year-old Isabel Fitzgerald. From her vantage point in the centre of the MCG, arguably Australia’s grandest sports stadium, Isabel hears the heads-tails verdict and which end the team of the winner will kick first.
A familiar face at AFL training
Every Tuesday and Thursday night, there’s always a familiar face at AFL Umpires training down here in Melbourne.
Brendan Hosking brings up his half century
It only seems like yesterday that scoreboards and journalists were calling Brendan anything other than Hosking when he had his first game in 2012 between Greater Western Sydney and West Coast Eagles. “It became a little frustrating when nobody knew my real name,” exclaimed Brendan at the time. Fifty games on and perhaps he is wishing he had remained anonymous.
Marra’s first milestone – 100 games
I wonder how many of you, like me, saw Michael Marantelli’s great running prowess and automatically assumed that his transition into umpiring came on the back of his elite running skills. Not so.
Community umpiring round another success
The culmination of all of the activities of the community umpiring round saw three young umpires walk in front of each AFL umpiring team onto AFL grounds all around the country on the weekend.









