Boundary umpire Michael Marantelli was the 142nd umpire, but only the 49th boundary umpire to officiate in 200 AFL games. Michael achieved this feat in the Richmond v Hawthorn match at the MCG. In reaching this milestone Michael became the fastest boundary umpire in the history of the game to reach 200 games – in 8 years and 53 days – eclipsing the previous fastest, Mark Forster and Chris Gordon (8 years 65 days). Michael’s total includes 19 finals and 3 grand finals.
Field umpire Matt Stevic moved to 9th on the all-time field umpire list surpassing current AFL umpires’ assistant coach, Bryan Sheehan on 364 games. Another field umpire, Simon Meredith umpired his 350th AFL game when St Kilda played Collingwood and moved into 11th on the all-time field umpire list.
Shane McInerney succumbed to injury this weekend which sees him stall on 494 games, one behind current all games record holder and current AFL field umpires’ coach, Hayden Kennedy (395). Rumours are circulating about whether Shane will be selected in the coming weeks. Shane was asked if he would do a Mark Taylor and declare on a record equaling score with Sir Don Bradman? Without thinking Shane responded that he was no Mark Taylor and Hayden Kennedy was certainly not Sir Don!
Chris Donlon umpired his 300th AFL game this weekend in the Dream Time game at the MCG. Chris has worked very diligently at his craft for many years now since he debuted in 2005. Chris has umpired 14 finals including one grand final.
Boundary umpire Ben McDonald umpired his 50th AFL game in the Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne match. Ben has only been on the list since 2017. He is certainly clocking up the kilometres quickly.
Our Fiona McBurney assistant trainer this week was Peter Keath. See his video on our page later in the week. Thanks Peter for your great work with our umpires.