Without these 570 officials, there’d be no weekend football

THIS green team has more than 500 members, and without them thousands of footballers across the region would be without a game each week.

AFL Barwon has more than 570 league, club and volunteer umpires this season, a record number helping keep local football running across the region.

Coordinating them all falls to AFL Barwon director of football umpiring, Jock Hillgrove, who faces the sometimes daunting task appointing umpires for the region’s junior and senior games.

Hillgrove must balance umpire availability with the skills and requirements of different age groups and divisions, ensuring the right people are officiating the right games.

It can be a challenge but without umpires on the field, there would be no games.

Hillgrove said umpire numbers were the strongest they had been in years, making the four-day task of assigning umpires to each game slightly easier than before.

“A lot of my role is the onboarding and ensuring everyone is accredited,” he said. “Then we have a group of about 25 that are umpire coaches, match observes and trainers, not too dissimilar to a footy club set up in terms of off-field support.”

Across the region, umpires are training just as hard as those taking the field to compete.

Dedicated training sessions run twice a week and Hillgrove and his support team provide ongoing education opportunities.

The rules of the game have not changed much, but their interpretation has.

Open discussions and analysis sessions allow the umpires to better understand what calls are expected from them in any situation.

 

Hillgrove said umpiring is rewarding but can be extremely challenging, especially for the nearly 50 per cent who are under the age of 18.

But while the first games can be intimidating, one of the highlights of his role is watching as new umpires find their confidence on field.

“I watch a young person who might be 14 years old umpiring their very first game in the field – they’re like a newborn giraffe,” Hillgrove said.

“We get them through the game, and then game six comes along, they’ve got 24 quarters experience and their improvement is 100 per cent. Their confidence keeps improving and we have to build confidence before we can build competency.

“We try and focus on keeping them resilient and keeping them focused, keeping them confident and backing them in.

“Some of the very first things we say to new umpires is it’s OK to make a wrong decision because that’s better than making no decision.”

Like anyone, Hillgrove said, the umpires are simply doing their best.

While umpiring can be challenging on the field, Hillgrove said the Geelong community is overwhelmingly supportive of its officials.

He said a bit of sideline heckling is part of the job and it is exciting to see local clubs have passionate supporters.

There is a line, though.

“Heckling is fine. Abuse is not,” Hillgrove said.

“Honestly, 98 per cent of the time stuff goes really well.

“We’ve got a great community – a passionate community – and passion isn’t abuse.

“When you cross those lines though, then you do need to be held accountable.”