Graeme Lindsay

Graeme Lindsay covered an awful lot of Victoria growing up and even more in his career with the VFL.

Born in Kew on 22 April 1933 his family moved to Traralgon and Broadford. In both locales Graeme immersed himself in the local sport playing football and cricket for Broadford and was U18 Champion of Traralgon Cycling Club in 1949.

After beginning umpiring in 1953 with the Geelong Umpires Association he moved to Melbourne and joined the VFL Reserve Grade field umpiring from 1958-61.

In 1962 he was promoted to the VFL senior list and commenced his tour of the countryside, this time with a whistle.

Many ex-country footballers who umpired with the VFL eventually umpired their former club. It took Graeme only two matches to do so when Broadford travelled to Avenel. He umpired the same match in 1969 but never got to run around on the Broadford ground in his six Waranga-North East matches.

It was in 1969 that he umpired the first of his three senior VCFL finals. The last of these was the 1972 Picola Football League  Second Semi-final and it left an impression.

“That last game a final in Picola League was a very sad moment, a realisation  that many great times as an active central umpire were at an end. A true milestone in life’s journey,” he recalled in 2006.

His final career total was 168 VCFL matches in 10 seasons and could have been more but for a season ending injury sustained at Fitzroy in a 1964 practice match.

Umpiring was not quite over though as he went to Eastern Districts in 1973 before finally putting the whistle away.

Off the field Graeme was a member of the VFLUA Social Committee in 1967-68 and was awarded life membership in 1973.

Graeme Lindsay passed away 10 February 2015.