INSIDE THE EFL | UMPIRING

By: Troy Swainston – Chief Executive Officer – Eastern Football League 

THIS WEEK we head into Round 5 and with lots of discussion around the new rules during pre-season, it’s timely that we consider whether there has been any impact on the game.   

From an AFL perspective, it appears the only rule change that has caused the most angst amongst the coaches is the runner although it doesn’t seem that the AFL will be backing down on that one.  We chose not to implement the rule in the EFL as we felt from a player development and interchange perspective it was important to maintain. The other rule changes adopted appear to have been implemented and accepted by players and coaches and our umpires continue to develop their knowledge and interpretations.

We now start to ask ourselves, were the rule changes really that significant or is it simply CHANGE that drove the discussion both positive and negative?

Our umpire numbers continue to grow to cover our expanding competition, we currently have 490 umpires who take to the ground each week with many umpiring across all disciplines and days to cover games.  Umpiring is one of the toughest jobs in football, we are fortunate that the quality of our league and our umpire coaches assists in attracting and retaining umpires. Retention is critical to umpire development.  Our Head of Umpiring, the coaches and EFL Umpires Association are building a great club and developing a list that will serve the League well into the future. With games, comes experience, development and learning no different to a young senior player moving through the ranks.

Many years ago, I remember telling an umpire that he was having a bad day, his immediate response was you’ve made a lot more mistakes than I have today.  It was a swift and sharp response but when I thought about it later that night and even to this day, he was correct.  There is no doubt that players and coaches make far more mistakes during a game of football that any umpire yet we tend to dwell on the umpires’ impact on a game rather than also looking internally for answers. One of my long-time issues with AFL matches has been the attitude that spectators pay their entry fee, so the umpires are fair game and umpire abuse is just a part of football. Do they seriously think that behaviour doesn’t flow back to local football?

Some food for thought – if your son or daughter made a mistake playing in a game of football or any other sport for that matter, would you abuse them?

Some great games of football again this weekend. Best of luck to all teams on the weekend.