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”

Welcome to round 2 for season 2019. Our umpiring group trains at Moorleigh Reserve, Bignell Road, East Bentleigh on Wednesdays starting at 6:15pm and finishing before 8pm. If any former footballers would like to stay involved in the game please contact the SFNL office for more information about becoming an umpire.

Well done to all umpires who officiated in round 1. Let’s continue our efforts. While we ask for a clean uniform we don’t suggest doing what one of our over-enthusiastic boundary umpires did. He was attempting to do the right thing and iron his shirt, however, I don’t think not only burning but melting his shirt was his aim. Next time we suggest a lower heat. Luckily he had a spare shirt to umpire in the next day.

The new year has seen some of our umpires debut in DIV 1 seniors, including 2 very young gun goal umpires. Congratulations to Ben for his debut last week. This week sees Jeramie take his debut after doing the U19 grand final last year. This young Yr 12 St Bede’s student got a raving review from not 1 but 2 goal coaches after his efforts over the last few weeks. Both said that he presented well and worked hard.  Jeff said that he moved well and had a great voice. According to Craig the head goal coach, he is a coachable young umpire who implements changes quickly. This is one umpire to watch in the future because who knows how far he’ll go.

Thanks to the social committee for putting on an enjoyable first supper last week. It was good to see all those who came down to enjoy a roast roll and welcome in the new season. During the season the association will be running training for a few nights. Our next association night will be on the 1^st of May. The social committee will be running a mini Olympics on this night. So come down and join in the fun.

The SFNL Umpiring Department is continuing to work closely with our SMJFL colleagues. The SMJFL would welcome as many senior SFNL umpires as possible who can help with mentoring the next generation of umpires every Sunday during the SMJFL season.

As a reminder to all umpires, we do not have training next Wednesday night and only the one game on Good Friday during the Easter long weekend. So enjoy your break and come back ready to umpire for round 3 and beyond.

Remember that:

“The Ump in Green Should Not Be Seen” and

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

by The White Knight

Welcome to season 2019. Our umpiring group trains at Moorleigh Reserve, Bignell Road, East Bentleigh on Wednesdays starting at 6:15 pm and finishing before 8 pm. If any former footballers would like to stay involved in the game please contact the SFNL office for more information about becoming an umpire.

After the 2018 season, our Director of Umpiring, Peter Marshall, called time after three successful years in the role and has taken on the role of Field Umpires Coach with the Ammos. Under Marshie’s leadership, our umpiring numbers increased, by almost 50% and last year, for the first time, we were appointing three field and boundary umpires to many senior matches. Marshie’s apprentice, Jonathan Auditore, has stepped up to the Director’s role in 2019. Jonathan has been our field umpires’ coach for the past three years and has been umpiring since joining the SFLUA as a brat way back in 1994.

In that time, he has umpired over 500 games of football, spent 2 years umpiring in Cairns and officiated games in London and Japan. He spent 5 years at the VAFA umpiring their highest level of football before spending 3 years as the Head Coach at the SMJFL. Jonathan is an Umpire High-Performance Coach and received the award for Vic Metro Umpire Coach of the year. He has spent time observing umpires at the VFL and has been an on-field coach focusing on skill and game development. The White Knight wishes Jonathan the very best in his role and is proud he took his advice and guidance about curbing his youthful exuberance in his early years as an umpire.

There have been some other changes to our umpiring department for 2019 with Cam Watts and Matt Mahoney taking over as our field umpire training skill coaches. Mark Mounsey and Brett Chard will be our on-field coaches. Craig Davenport remains as Head Coach of the goal umpires and will be supported by Jeff Mark, Brett Marriott, Andrew Gillespie & Bill Keilor. Tim Fierenzi is the Boundary Umpire Coach and will be assisted by Mitch Lea. Our Match Day Facilitators are Harry Stamos (North Side) and Peter Bailey (South
Side). Peter will also continue as our video analyst. Jaye Edmunds is the new Field Umpire Fitness Coach and David Smith is our Match Day Observer.

At Committee level, Alan Manning continues as President, with Rodd Johnson as Secretary, John Borg as Treasurer and Kevin Mitchell as Property Steward. Other committee members are Hannah Faulkes (Boundary Umpire Rep and Media Manager), Thomas Grundy (Social Secretary), Elise Cooper, Glen Emery (Field Umpire Rep) and Tony Levett (Goal Umpire Rep).

This week the VFL announced its lists for 2019 and we are ecstatic with the 16 SFNL umpires on VFL senior, senior development and development lists.

Field Umpires: Luke Porter and Cam Watts (VFL senior), Matthew Mahoney (Senior Development), Jack Cannon, Nathan Guy, Darcy Trewarn
(Development List)

Boundary Umpires: Matthew Crowley and John Cooper (VFL Senior), Joel Davis (Senior Development), Kaitlin Barr and Lachlan Menara (Development List)

Goal Umpires: Dean Jones, Tayla Manning (Senior List), Patrick Aurish, Daniel O’Shea and Samuel Rogers (Development List)

The SFNL Umpiring Department is continuing to work closely with our SMJFL colleagues. Our own Cam Watts heads up the SMJFL Umpiring Academy with Nick Bergman as Head Coach, Glenn Emery and Matthew Mahoney coaching the experienced field umpires, Doug Haworth, Chris Hughes and Nathan Guy are coaching the first year field umpires, while Courtney Stelling and Nick Ritchie are looking after the boundary umpires. The SMJFL would welcome as many senior SFNL umpires as possible who can help with mentoring the next generation of umpires every Sunday during the SMJFL season.

We are adopting most of the new AFL rules and interpretations for 2019. For example, when a player is kicking in from full-back, the player on the mark must now be 10 metres back from the goal square. Players have the option of playing on from full-back without kicking the ball to themselves but must start with both feet inside the goal square. They can run up to 15 metres from the square before disposing of the football. If a player doesn’t start in the square or handballs from the square, they will need to reset and bring the ball into play correctly. Players which kick the ball out without it being touched by a player will not be penalised unless the umpire deems it to be a deliberate kick
out.

Defenders taking a mark or a free kick deep in defence will have the mark set in a line with the front of the goal square (nine metres from the goal line. This applies even if the kick is to be taken from outside the behind posts.

At the start of each quarter and after each goal, the players are required to set up in the 6:6:6 formation, with one player from each team in each goal square. Use common-sense in implementing this rule, giving players time to set-up and only paying a free kick for deliberate errors, or a delay in responding to instructions to set up correctly. If a team has one or more players sent off or injured, then one or more zones can have less than six players in them. Each team is given one warning per game.

Remember that:
“The Ump in Green Should Not Be Seen” and
“We Bounce, We Blow, The Rules We Know”