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.
“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.
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.
Every Tuesday and Thursday night, there’s always a familiar face at AFL Umpires training down here in Melbourne.
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.
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.
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.
Jack Edwards became the 433rd field umpire to debut in a VFL/AFL game. Jack was in charge of the Melbourne v Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday. Jack has come through the VFL ranks as a rising star. He umpired the TAC Cup grand final in 2012, the VFL development league grand final in 2013 and the VFL senior grand final in 2014 before being offered an AFL contract this season.
Please click here to listen to the audio from 3aw with AFL Field Umpire, Jordan Bannister.