This is the week of milestones for the SFNLUA, with 5 umpires reaching milestones this week. Congratulations to Brett Northage, 100 games; Simon Pratt, 400 games; Hannah Faulks, 200 games; Peter Martin, 1000 combined games with the SMJFL; and to the SFNLUA record holder Keith Mark, 1300 games.

Keith “Rowdy” Mark will reach another milestone this Saturday by waving the flags at Koornang Park in the Caulfield v Murrumbeena Ressies match in his 1300^th SFNL/SESFL game. Keith has been associated with the Beena for over fifty years and arranges his milestone games for Beena matches, as the photo from game 1100 shows.  His total is an all-time record for the SFNL/SESFL for all umpires.

Keith’s disability (he has been deaf since birth) hasn’t hampered his umpiring career as he has great eyesight.  Keith started umpiring in 1981 to support his son John (Joffa) who was a junior boundary umpire, and who two years later field umpired a Div 1 senior match at the age of 16 (with Peter Martin as his umpiring partner).  Joffa retired early from umpiring to concentrate on cricket (he represented Australia in indoor cricket) but Keith continued waving the flags, with many years as a member of the elite Division 1 panel.  Although no longer in the Div 1 panel, Keith still loves his umpiring and the celebratory beer which he enjoys at the end of each Saturday.  Unfortunately for players who have used Keith’s deafness as an opportunity to try and “get away” with saying some less than complimentary things about his umpiring, he is able to lip read, and has been known to produce a card to an offending player with the words  “I have reported you for using abusive language to an umpire:” on it!!

Helping Keith celebrate on Saturday will be Peter Martin who is reaching a milestone of his own as he becomes the first SFNL/SMJFL field umpire to reach 1000 games across both comps.  However, Peter will never come close to Keith’s record which is likely to stand forever!

At training this week, an unusual sight could be seen over with the boundary umpires. A game of tug of war seemed to be happening. Only instead of rope bins seemed to be the method of choice. Watching as the head boundary coach struggled to separate the bins he had chosen as a seat earlier in the night was eventually replaced with him and another umpire tussling with the bins before eventually one umpire ended on his back with bin triumphantly in hand.

Thanks to everyone who donated last week at our BBQ, as a group we raised $192 dollars for Beyond Blue. Our next BBQ will be on 31st July.

Just before you go out on the field we recommend that you check that you have everything you need; whistle, wristbands, flags. Unfortunately for Adam Morrow, when walking out for his reserves game on the weekend he forgot to check he had both his wristband and whistle with him. Having to make a quick dash back to the rooms after reaching the centre to retrieve them both. Not an experience he will likely to repeat, especially as he happened to do it on the week when he happened to be umpiring with our director of umpiring.

The seniors game at Cheltenham seemed to be a slip and slid event with 2 of our umpires falling over within the first quarter. One boundary umpire, Kennedy, not helped by his purple hair, fell over in the first 15 seconds of the game. He was soon outshined by Micheal, one of the Fieldies, who didn’t fall once but three times he either fell or got knocked over in the first 2 quarters of the game. I’m sure they’ll both be watching there footing for now on.

At Oakleigh Districts last week we had a visit from 2 superheroes, Batman and Robin. One of the officials for Oakleigh Districts, upon seeing two of our Coaches/Observers at the ground decide that they were Batman and Robin. The Coach happened to be our goal umpire coach Craig with one of his Observers Robin. So now we have Batman and Robin at the SFNLUA.

Upon arriving at a point post most of our boundary umpires tend to stand directly behind the goal post. Well not for one umpire at Endeavour Hills last week. He could be seen every so often arriving at the point post and deciding to casually lean against the post. While this may look good in a bar it is not suggested for our Boundary umpires.

Upon seeing your coach arrive at the ground most umpires may get nervous, but one goal umpire seemed to have a different reaction to seeing his coach. Tony Levett upon seeing his coach at the ground had a look of “oh no” behind the coaches back before warmly greeting the coach before his seniors match at Endeavour Hills.

During the week, while our head coach was away, the social committee decided to run a mini Olympics for the umpires. This included things like the longest plank, the longest kick, goal kicking, trying to throw a ball into a bin, and an egg toss match. It was interesting to watch as umpires out of there element trying to kick footballs a long way, it did show why some of us do umpire. Some field umpires may yet have a career as a boundary if there throw-ins where anything to go by. Just before the last group of the night, the plank record for us was at 5min, this was soon not only beaten but doubled with one of our boundaries, Kennedy, going for 10min.

The night was drawn to a close with a raffle, with prizes such as lollies, hats and a meat tray on offer. One of the goal umpire coaches happened to win the cap and put it on with no shame at all. The meat tray it seems was one by one of the very few vegetarians in the group. Here’s hoping he found someone to put it too good use. Well done to all who participated it was a fun night indeed and congratulations to the Social Committee and Committee for putting on the night.

Apologies to Elise for last week misinformation was provided to the white knight in regards to her arriving at her game last week.

Sorry, all for not having a white knight last round, due to illness and travel I wasn’t able to post anything. This week will be a combined rd 8 & 9.

We hope most of you enjoyed your week off last week and are rested for our run into finals. We have now moved back to Moorleigh for the remainder of the season. With that we now have our canteen open upstairs, we ask that you fill in any food request at the start of the evening as you sign in (next to the books on the table downstairs). Help support the association and come upstairs and grab a soft drink at the end of the night.

At keysborough in Rd 8 an umpire/mentor could be heard or rather not heard trying to mentor reserve umpires with no voice. Before moving off to their own game where luckily as a boundary umpire a voice isn’t 100% necessary.

Given that there was only one field with games last weekend it was the week to ensure that you were on time. One of our field umpires, Elise, thought that turning up ten minutes late was ok as no one would find out. Unfortunately for her a coach was at the field.

It’s great to see our young goal umpires getting a helping hand from mentors. At keysborough in Rd 8 it was fantastic to see Robin (one of the goal umpire observers) on the field during the first quarter helping the young field umpire out.

At Dingley in Rd 9 all the umpires for the senior match could be seen outside there change room, well and truly away from the door. It turns out ex AFL goal umpire Luke Walker decided to take a dump in the umpires rooms. Unfortunately for him with the rooms being smaller then the ones he’d be used to at the AFL, it stunk out the room and sent the umpires scrambling outside for fresh air.

There are certain key items that we ask all our umpires walk out with. For goalies this does include the cap, unfortunately for Brett NorthGage he happened to walk out during Rd 8 without his cap.

A sight could be seen on the boundary with a Mr Williamson running out in fluro orange shoes. While this may have been ok with our orange uniforms, with our change to our new green uniforms it makes this stand out even more.

Good luck to all running this week and in the lead up to finals. With the school holidays coming up we ask all umpires to let their coaches know if you are going to be unavailable during this time with in the next two weeks

Best of luck to all umpires representing the SFNL over this coming interleague weekend. The umpires selected will be the youngest crew we have ever put forward and we are all extremely proud of their achievements thus far in the season.

Field – Nick, Nick, Sheldon and Ryan

Boundary – Caleb, Jacob, Courtney and Olivia

Goal, Damon, John and Matthew

Kevin Mitchell and his helpers have done an amazing job in distributing our new uniform – well done, team! If you haven’t picked up your uniform or put in an order we urge you to get down to training or organise someone to pick up your uniform.

Training at Linton St has been going smoothly and the White Knight is most impressed by the way all umpires have adjusted to a change of venue. The spaces that we have been given are serving their purpose and it’s been great seeing large numbers of umpires at training each week.

We have just passed 300 registered members for the fourth year in a row. The positive thing about this number is that 72% is made up of returning umpires. Credit to all umpires for wanting to be part of the game and taking up the challenge of being an umpire in one of the most complicated games in the world to officiate.

Congratulations to the SFNLUA for supporting Beyond Blue Round last week. What a terrific way to get behind a worthy cause! It was great to see all the umpires running around with blue armbands over the weekend.

We welcome Les Stuart to the SFNL Umpiring Department. Les will be our trainer for the remainder of the season and we thank him for what he will be doing for us. It was good to see some of Natalie’s old regulars taking advantage of Les for his first week down at training.

Last weekend, several SFNLUA members who appear to be members of the Melbourne Victory Ultras headed to Sydney for the A-League semi-final. The lads were not impressed when they went a goal down in the opening minutes and by the time Sydney scored their sixth goal, they appeared shattered. Bergs was a little tired and emotional while Tev was praying for the rain that he hadn’t forecast. On the train journey back to Central, they endured the taunts of the Sydney supporters but were too miserable to respond. However, the mood changed at Redfern when, as the train doors were closing, Tev was hip and shouldered out the door and was last seen waving angrily from the platform at his umpiring colleagues who were laughing happily as the train continued its journey.

James Aitken evidently is a budding street artist. The White Knight has it on good authority that he has been using electrical shape to create artistic designs on fellow umpires’ car windows. Judging by the size of his artwork, he is not into doing self-portraits.

Over the last 2 weeks, one of our boundaries could be seen doing a facepalm on the field, while watching as the other boundary had jumped over the fence to retrieve the ball. A reminder to all umpires that we do not go over the fence to retrieve the ball. Ask a player or a crowd member nicely to retrieve the ball for you.

Remember that:

“The Ump in Green Should Not Be Seen” and

“We Bounce, We Blow, The Rules We Know”

Last week was Umpire Appreciation Round,  Four of our SFNL umpires – Ryan Mann, Hannah Layzell, Michael Moore and Michael Whelan – attended AFL training and also took part in an on-field experience.  They found the pre-match on-field warm-up a little difficult, with our AFL colleagues out-sprinting their younger visitors.

AFL umpire Rob O’Gorman is again part of the Umpire mates program and his SFNL mates this year are Alanah French,  Thomas Moore, Rob O’Gorman (AFL umpire)

Congratulations to all our umpires representing the SFNL during the Interleague Carnival.  The Field Umpires are Nick Bergman, Nick Ritchie, Sheldon Judd and Ryan Mann, Boundary Umpires Caleb Garraway, Jacob Curry, Courtney Stelling and Olivia Burn, and Goal Umpires Damon Kelly, John Gilley and Matthew Wilson

Om Satija is one of our newest young guns and is already doing doubleheaders and looking as fit after eight quarters as he did at the start of the day.  He started following the footy in 2012 after a friend’s dad took him and his brother to a Freo vs Saints preseason game at Subiaco. He played his first season that winter for Morley Bulldogs in Perth and his last season as a player was 2017 (U15’s) for Glen Waverley Rovers.  Overall, he has played 53 games. He is an avid Freo supporter and has been since he started following the football.

Om started umpiring in Perth in 2016 for East Perth Districts Footy League and continued at the SMJFL when he moved to Melbourne in 2017. Like so many other SMJFL umpires, he was urged to try out in the SFNL and did 4-5 rounds of Reserves last season to get an experience of umpiring adults and to adjust to the differences in the style of play.

Om is a Year 11 student at Melbourne High School where he is studying Japanese, Physics, Chemistry, English, Maths Methods and PE (unit 3/4). His favourite subjects are Japanese and PE. Om loves music as well and plays a few instruments with the main one being the saxophone. He is in Stage Band (Jazz/rock) at school and has done many sessions of busking on the streets and solo performances on stage. Perhaps he can perform for us at the Association Presentation Night

He is a cricket tragic and it is his dream to play first-class cricket (preferably for WA). He bowls leggies but does enjoy batting long periods of time and listening to the opposition try to sledge the s**t out of him for batting too slowly. Cricket is certainly his favourite sport, pastime, hobby and favourite thing to do.

One boundary umpire last week did a little bit more driving then needed. Her parents upon discovering that there was 2 Hallam Reserves decided that the right field to go to was in Pascoe Vale, just a little further out of the way the Hallam. It is encouraged that we remember that we are the Southern Football Netball League and to look at Schedula to see the map as to where your field is. The umpires handbook also has all the locations for the grounds in it, this could just save you an extra couple of hours of travel on the weekend.

While the games being filmed is a good way for us to review our game, as one umpire found out it can also lead to moments we would rather forget being filmed. Luke Walker has discovered this out over the week with one of his two falls for the game being not only captured on the video but being featured in the match highlights for that week. (From 1:40)

After games, please tidy up after yourself. It is not a club’s responsibility to do this for us. The Japanese soccer team showed this during the World Cup when they went out of their way to clean up the mess, they made in the rooms, after their games. To build positive relationships between Club and Umpires, we need to get into the habit of doing this without being asked. The bin in the umpires room at Heatherton seems to have a mind of its own and can get quite lonely, so it is encouraged that we use the bin provided to us.

After cleaning the rooms, common courtesy would be to stay behind after your game, senior umpires, for a least one drink (water, soft drink or other beverage) in the clubs social facility. Let’s stop leaving this up to the few who do this regularly and work towards it being the many.

Unfortunately, our trainer for many years, Natalie, is unable to continue working with the SFNL, but we are fortunate to have obtained the services of Les Stuart who has been the head trainer at Port Colts for at least twenty years.  Les has been keeping the White Knight’s legs in working order for a long time and, if he can get me on the park, he can get anyone up and running.

Our New uniforms are ready to be picked up, if you didn’t already get yours this week we ask that you try and get down to training or organise someone to come down and pick up your new uniform for you. If you have yet to order your uniform please also come down and fill in an order form this week so you can join the rest of your fellow umpires in the new uniforms.

Remember that:

“The Ump in Green Should Not Be Seen” and

“We Bounce, We Blow, The Rules We Know”