Like many umpires before him, Daniel took up umpiring to earn a bit of pocket money and also because his dad, a former state and grade cricket umpire, encouraged him to give it a go.
Daniel Johanson joins the AFL Rookie Squad for the first time in Western Australia. He began umpiring in the West Perth District in 2008, progressed through the pathway umpiring school football and senior amateur football before being promoted to the WAFL umpiring panel in 2014. He debuted in WAFL league football in 2016, umpired the WAFL Colts Grand Final in 2016 and 2017 and the WAFL Reserves Grand Final in 2018. Daniel also umpired in the AFL Under 16s Championships in 2016, the AFL Under 18s Championships in 2018 and the AFLW in 2018. His career highlight to date was umpiring on the MCG on AFL Grand Final day in 2018.
Daniel is employed as a physiotherapist and has a passion in sports medicine research. He also likes getting into the gym, seeing family and friends and taking his dog Sasha for walks. He lives with his girlfriend Tara in the northern suburbs of Perth where they just bought their first house together.
Daniel enjoys the tight knit group in Perth that includes both WAFL and AFL umpires which provides a great learning platform for upcoming umpires. He admires Jeff Dalgleish and Dean Margetts for the professionalism that they exude and the amount of training they put into their umpiring. Jeff and Dean are also great mentors and leaders for the WA AFL group and the WAFL group as a whole.
Daniel is a pretty motivated person and loves the routine of training and striving for improvement. This gives him a lot of personal satisfaction and motivation to do even better. His advice for new up and coming umpires is to honestly self-analyse your own performance and standards and don’t ever get comfortable as there are always things you can improve and get better at.
In advancing his own career, Daniel has a number of people who have supported him along the way including Cam Douglas (WAFL Field Umpires’ Coach for the last two season), Grant Vernon, Craig O’Donoghue (former WAFL Field Umpires’Coach) and his dad.
Welcome Daniel to the 2019 AFL Rookie Squad. We wish you all the best for the year ahead!
Article written by: AFLUA Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Peter Kelly