“Grange Hermitage” comes to mind when we talk about Justin Schmitt who umpired his 350th AFL game on Friday night, he just keeps getting better with age! Justin becomes the 13th umpire in the history of the game to achieve that feat. The affable Schmitt always has a softly spoken kind word for everyone who crosses his path, except the odd player who gets in his way!
When the football is one sided and umpiring goes unnoticed it would be tough to make changes going into the penultimate round of finals of 2017. So spare a thought for Brendan Hosking and Ray Chamberlain who might be in the unenviable position of having to sit as emergency umpires through two weekends of finals.
Veteran goal umpire, Jason Venkataya waved his flags for the 211th time in an AFL game on Friday night and bowed out of football. In a great show of support for Jason all of the officiating umpires waited in the centre of the MCG for Jason to finish his duty of checking the score with fellow goal umpire, Chris Appleton and then left the arena together with Jason leading the group off the field.
Brodie Kenny-Bell becomes the 340th goal umpire to debut in the VFL/AFL. Brodie officiated in the Sydney v GWS game at the SCG. Talking to Brodie today he was still on cloud nine and said that his family and friends traveled over from South Australia to make the day even more special.
Shane McInerney heralded in his 400th game on Saturday with a panel of significant experience. Between the nine officiating umpires there was a total of 1873 games of AFL football including 131 finals and 19 grand finals. Boundary umpire Drew Kowalski was the least experienced with 82 games under his belt.
The comebacks continued from VFL to AFL this week. Simon Meredith and Chris Kamolins were back from long term injury and illness. Both of these experienced umpires bolstered the ranks and brought a level of experience to the group.
AFL goal umpire David Dixon has equalled Colin Hood’s record of 311 games this weekend when he officiated in the St.Kilda v Western Bulldogs match at Etihad Stadium on Sunday. This puts David and Colin equal fourth on the all-time list of VFL/AFL games umpired by a goal umpire. Only current goal umpire, Mark Canning (318), Craig Clark (334) and David Flegg (337) are ahead of David. Coincidentally, Colin was David’s partner in his first AFL game and the goal umpire’s observer in this game.
Twenty five weeks into a tough season that will go to the wire for teams fighting for a top 8 finish and our field umpires are dropping like flies. Heath Ryan has finally succumbed to a season ending Achilles injury following his first game back in round 18 for 8 weeks. The idea was to rest, recover and go again but the season was simply too long.
Jason Venkataya represented umpiring with distinction at the AFL opening of the Multi-cultural round. Jason was part of a panel interviewed by Jason Mifsud, AFL head of diversity. He outlined his families journey to Australia, his introduction to footy and why it was important for his connection to Australia’s culture. Jason also gave an insight into what umpiring meant to him.