Top ump visits town

AT the Ballarat Football Umpires Association season launch, members were treated to a visit and a training tips from AFL goal umpire Chelsea Roffey.

Her visit was part of the final training session at City Oval before the region’s football leagues swung into action and BFUA head of operations Billy Mitchell said including Roffey was one of the organisation’s strategies to increase the number of women officiating the game.

“This year’s focus is on females and growing our participation in umpiring, at the moment 10 per cent membership is females, we want that to be closer to 30 per cent in five years,” he said.

“Chelsea’s here to set the agenda around that, she’s a trailblazer and has been able to get to the AFL and even done a grand final as well.

“The leagues are doing a lot in terms of driving female participation, like the BFLW is launching this year, if we can jump on board, drive for new players, we will also see the benefit on our end.”

Having travelled from Melbourne for the training session, Ms Roffey said she’s excited to get involved in opportunities to promote female footy and umpiring.

“We have three female umpires in the AFL at the moment so there aren’t many around,” she said.

“Although there are so many at a community level and we are looking to build those pathways and pipelines to get more girls and women involved.

“Especially with AFLW, it’s such a brilliant competition, umpiring is just another avenue to be a part of the game, if we can spread that message and get girls involved, there are opportunities now out there and people should go for it.

Although female participation is still low within the Ballarat and regional leagues, Mr Mitchell said there’s around 300 umpires currently registered from a diverse range of ages and abilities.

“There’s no pre-requisite, there’s some training that you have to do during your first year but there’s no barrier in signing up to be an umpire,” he said.

“We accept umpires aged 13 plus all the way up to 80.

“We want to be an organisation that not only includes males and females, but also empowers them in terms of what we can do for the community.”