The AFLUA’s Life Members’ training visit has returned for 2024.
A group of 24 Life Members were welcomed to AFL House in Marvel Stadium to take a look at the modern command centre of AFL Umpiring. AFLUA CEO Rob Kerr, who attended the night, had the following to say:
On the night members were able to witness an on ground trial of the new ball tracking technology and hear from Damian Farrow who has been leading this project within the AFL, along with Football Operations Manager Josh Mahoney. The group fired many questions at the AFL officials and most were left commenting on how much things had changed.
Once in the AFL ARC area AFLUA President Chris Donlon welcomed the group before passing over to the AFL’s Head of Officiating, Stephen McBurney. After opening with a few jokes at his own expense, Steve provided an overview of the technology that sits behind AFL umpiring. This was a wise choice as it seemed to curtail any discussion of the games rules or interpretations of those rules. From the lecture theatre the group then moved in the ARC where 434 Game umpire Matt Nichols provided a behind the scenes explanation of the ARC.
Matt spoke of the umpires experience of interacting with the ARC including the support the ARC provides for score reviews From there the group moved into the coaching and game analysis suite where multiple screens allow for each game to be ‘tagged’ as it plays out. Every decision or non-decision is time coded by a game analyst so that coaches and umpires can review the game in a highly efficient way. This also forms the basis of each umpires weekly coaching assessment. The contrast with the ‘boardman’ of the bygone era was stark as the group sat within the high tech room.
The evening then finished with Pizzas and drinks in the common area where to the pleasure of the ex umpiring crew, todays Field Umpires welcomed and mingled with them. Conversation flowed and it was clear that both current and past Umpires really enjoyed the opportunity to interact and connect.
A special thanks to the AFL Umpiring Department for hosting the event and making the night possible. Its wonderful to be able to maintain a connection between the past and present umpires, and join umpiring’s rich history with it’s bright and ever-evolving future.
