There is no doubt that Ballarat would’ve made some type of football history on Sunday. Played in arctic temperatures with hail, wind and rain the weather bureau said the temperature felt like minus 5 degrees. Add that to the sub-standard lighting and the game certainly took on a country game that needed car headlights around the perimeter of the oval turned on to allow players and coaches to see.
Some of our best umpires seem to have been cursed this season and no matter how hard they work, recover and rest they just can’t seem to get a break!
State Umpire Manager in SA, Shane Harris has been a fantastic supporter of our FM MDE program since its inception. This weekend he took it a step further with the help of Maureen Lawlor from Down Syndrome SA when 11 Down Syndrome participants played football on Adelaide Oval at half time in the Port Adelaide v St. Kilda match. See the Adelaide Advertiser article about the match and look for a series of photos that we will publish on our website and Sportability Facebook page during the week. Congratulations to all who helped make the day memorable for our participants.
Scott Jeffery and Mitch Le Fevre were honoured in a roll call of Tasmanian football champions on Saturday night in Hobart’s, Wrest Point Casino.
The jury is still out after 6 games of the 2018 version of the four umpire trial. Free kicks were up slightly and commentators who were previously forwards in the game certainly relished the additional protection afforded their present day players received.
The split rounds have commenced and when we look around we have to ask ourselves where has the season gone? It is fair to say that we all just get onto that treadmill called the weekly cycle and start peddling hard, just to keep up.
How long is a piece of string? Eleven 50 metre penalties is a record in a game of AFL football said the statisticians who have been measuring everything in football forensically for the past few years. Dane Rampe from the Sydney Swans probably summed it up best when he was caught on field umpire, Nick Foot’s microphone wanting to know if he’d also had a coffee with “Clarko”, after Nick awarded Dane’s opponent a free kick for being held in the game against Carlton. Who said banter was dead?
Two umpires from completely different pathways celebrated their 100 game milestones on the weekend. It has taken goal umpire, Daniel Hoskin 9 years and 4 games to notch his 100. Dan umpired his first game in 2009 from his base in SA. He went to work and umpired in Qld for 12 months in 2015 before returning to SA where he is now stationed. Dan worked as a teacher in the country region of SA in a town called Moonta, travelling over four hours return to training each night and games each weekend. Field umpire, Leigh Fisher played 55 games for St. Kilda before turning to umpiring. Leigh umpired his first AFL match in 2013. Leigh has taken to umpiring like a “fish to water”, some would say. He certainly thrives in the environment and has become one of the first umpires picked each week. Leigh has umpired 36 AFL games straight and is third on the list of consecutive games as it currently stands. (Meredith 62, Nicholls 60 are ahead of him) Leigh, like Dan has an obvious passion for football, and we congratulate both of them on their milestone.
Seventeen years on and over 707,000 kilometres of travel between Perth and Melbourne, Dean Margetts umpired his 300th AFL game at the new Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night in the match between Fremantle and Essendon. Both Ross Lyon and John Worsfold congratulated Dean on his outstanding achievement prior to the game. Dean’s family and closest friends enjoyed the hospitality of the new stadium at a corporate function provided by the AFLUA in conjunction with the AFL to mark the occasion. (See our video interview with Dean on the website later this week.)