Nothing could detract from Rob O’Gorman’s first official game (he umpired a quarter when he came on in the GWS v Melbourne game in Round 3) Hawthorn v. St Kilda at the MCG on a Saturday afternoon. Not even the score line! “It made no difference to me I still had to judge each contest on its merits. Dean Margetts and Jacob Mollison looked after me and we had a great day,” reflected Rob when we caught up with him early in the week.
Tasmanian based goal umpire, Mark Ensbey umpired his first AFL game yesterday when he lined up in the Western Bulldogs v Adelaide match, becoming the 337th goal umpire to umpire an VFL/AFL match.
Here is a quirky one to start this weeks observations. Did Ben Ryan not hear the call from Luke Hodge yesterday which meant that the coin had to be tossed again or was it that the coin tosser used a “lucky coin” with two heads? Either way there appears to be a strange phenomenon these days with the coin needing to be tossed for a second time, there was the one time last season when captains had to pick the hand that held the whistle, there was even a “paper rock scissors” game when nobody had a coin a few years ago. I noted with interest that Bindi and Robert Irwin from Australia Zoo tossed the coin last Thursday night in the Brisbane v Richmond game.
A full round of matches this week and no emergency umpires got a run! Phew what a difference seven days can make. Two of the field umpires who were replaced last weekend, Jason Armstrong and Ben Ryan were able to get themselves up and went back out to umpire in round 4. Justin Schmitt however has succumbed a a significant calf injury. Heath Ryan had to be replaced following training last week when he went out with an Achilles problem to be replaced in the selected panel by Tristan Burgess. It was Tristan’s first game for the season.
Field umpiring over the weekend became became a war of attrition as three umpires went down on Sunday with injury during matches.
Two field umpires bit the dust prior to the commencement of the round which saw David Harris and Leigh Fisher come in for their first games of the season. Scott Jeffery (back) and Jason Armstrong (calf) were the two umpires who were replaced.
The AFL lists were finalised a week before round one commenced bringing something old and many things new.
The umpiring department obviously thought that Jack McBurney might need some assistance in his 400 AFL appearance on the weekend so they appointed him with Shane McInerney who was doing his 373rd game and with veteran “rookie” Stuart Wenn who was doing his 330th game. When was the last time three field umpires with 1103 games and a combined age of 130 years umpired a game of AFL football?
Field umpire, Matthew Leppard achieved a bitter-sweet milestone on Saturday at Box Hill when he umpired his 100th VFL match. Matthew has had an inconsistent season with only ten AFL appearances. Matthew is focused on regaining his spot on the AFL roster, he is training very hard and working to get his decision-making more consistent.