Whistle Blows For More Umpires

by Martin Davis

You might love them or hate them but umpires are important in all sport but without them, the game simply cannot be played. This is a major fact in Australian Rules Football where there are more people playing the game across the country but there are fewer umpires.

Approximately 60 umpires are registered as part of the West Perth District in the Northern Conference.

Umpire manager of the West Perth District Mitch Whan states that abuse is the major reason why young people don’t want to umpire Aussie rules football, as many don’t want to cop the abuse from parents, they feel like they wouldn’t be able to handle it or be able to deal with it.

“When you get to a junior level where it’s a small crowd you can hear one dad's voice very clearly yelling out.. do you know what you are doing, blow the whistle, they can’t handle it and choose not to return to umpiring,” said Mitch

Former WAFL Reserves umpire Rob Corrigan who has been umpiring since 2010 suggests why there is such a low amount of umpires within the conference “ … we don’t get too many [umpires] because of the media scrutiny of umpires at the top-level…”

With there being so many different forms of media, spectators and commentators are able to express their opinion on the umpiring that is displayed at the top level and when a potential youth who is thinking about umpiring see’s the harsh critics they get second thoughts and end up not wanting to umpire.

“The media sometimes hurts the opportunity for kids and adults to join umpiring, obviously AFL is such a big sport in this country, unfortunately, people say some things and get people to not say or do things,” Corrigan explained.

Being held in round 7 of the AFL home and away season, community umpires will head out onto the field of play prior to the game commencing for the coin toss as well as umpiring halftime games. This is aimed to promote community umpiring around Australia.

As much as being an umpire has its negatives there are also many positives that come out of umpiring, Mitch stated why being an umpire is so rewarding, “…you get good money for doing it [Umpiring], you’re in control of this game, you go out onto the field and everyone [players] turn to you to know the answers to what’s going on… it’s great for fitness and you get to have a whole lot of fun

The Northern Conference will continue to use social media, local newsletters as well as newspaper articles in continuance to bring in local community members to become potential community umpiring stars.