Umpire’s Corner – by The White Knight
Next week is Umpire Appreciation Round. The SFNL will requesting that clubs are even nicer to us than usual so make sure that you stay and socialise after your match. You may even get a free drink or two!!
Due to a number of issues relating to ground allocations, we will be training for about five weeks from Wednesday May 1 on the front oval at RSEA Park in Linton St Moorabbin. We will have access to the player change rooms, a lecture theatre and a basketball court (from 6pm to 7pm). It will be exciting to check out the new facilities at Linton St.
Best of luck to those umpires who are selected for the Interleague match between the West Gippsland League and the Ellinbank League at Yarragon on May 18, and to the umpires selected for the Woman’s Interleague match at Linton St the same weekend.
Congratulations to Adam Ross, Goal Umpire, on his 200th game this weekend. Starting his journey in 2014, he has since had the privilege of umpiring not only finals but grand finals as well. He has always been interested in goal umpiring and figured he’d give it a go when he was looking for a way to stay involved in sports. When he is not on the field he can be found at Harvey Norman in Chadstone working, catching up with friends and family, or during the summer umpiring for SECA. He sees himself as an easy going guy and many an umpire would agree. During his first few years, due to a lack of fitness he had a bit of trouble getting out of the way of some of the bigger full forwards or full backs. He remembers one particular incident being stuck under the Mt Waverly captain while watching a ball come through the goals. He has since improved his fitness and is thankful to leave these sorts of incidents behind. His highlights have been the finals and grand finals he has umpired, something which he never takes for granted. He can be seen at McKinnon reserves for the St Pauls VS St Kilda City Reserves (199) and Seniors (200) games. Good luck to him for the weekend and for the years to come.
Best of luck also to all the umpires running on Sunday in the first round of the SMJFL season. A number of our senior umpires will be mentoring the AFL umpires of tomorrow.
Our uniforms should arrive in the next few days and be available for collection at training on May 1.
Many of our clubs have planned ANZAC tributes this weekend so let’s make sure that we support them. It was great to see the red training tops of Port Colts worn by their senior players at the annual Port Melbourne ANZAC service. This is probably the most significant ANZAC service other than the dawn service as it was from Station Pier that so many of our ANZAC sailed. For the fallen, their last sight of Australia was Port Melbourne’s piers!
Chardie was looking a little the worse for wear at training this week. He had an argument with a wooden plank at work and shaved not just the hair off his shin but also much of the skin. Like the Tigers of old, he was ‘risking head and shin’.
The Purple Monarch (Our Umpiring magician) was up to his tricks again not just off field but on field as well. While running backwards during his last match he not only fell over backwards but the managed to do a back flip and then keep on running.
With one of our umpires turning another decade older their 90s party saw the Purple Monarch drawing a crowd with his tricks. While he was growing a crowd, one of our field observers could be heard asking for people to rub his belly. Fraggle not to be left out of the fun turned up in a blast from the past for our umpires, with his jacket and score notebook from the 1995 as well as a very cute looking mickey tie said to be worn at all his games for that year. A throw back for most of our umpires saw Mario kart make an appearance even better was seeing Mario playing himself in Mario Kart. It was a fun night had by all.
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Remember that:
“The Ump in Green Should Not Be Seen” and
“We Bounce, We Blow, The Rules We Know”