EFL 2018: Umpire Martien Pruysers brings up his 1800th game in the Eastern Football League
A SUBURBAN football umpire who moved to Australia from the Netherlands at the age of seven has just clocked up a milestone that must be unrivalled.
Eastern
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MARTIEN Pruysers is of Dutch heritage. He was born in Rotterdam but moved to Australia with his parents and two siblings when he was just seven.
It didn’t take him long to fall in love with Australian rules football.
Now the 70-year-old has brought up a milestone that must surely be unmatched in umpiring ranks.
Pruysers officiated his 1800th game in the Round 12 Eastern Football League Division 2 clash between Upper Ferntree Gully and Bayswater.
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He tossed the coin to start the game and “was acknowledged in the Upper Gully Football Club social rooms afterwards”. A sign of the respect that Pruysers is held in by clubs, players and officials.
The Ferntree Gully resident first picked up the whistle when he was 13.
“I used to run the boundary for the Gembrook Football Club,” Pruysers recalled.
“I wasn’t built for football in those days and basically ran the boundary for them for four years.”
He pulled on the boots when he “developed a little bit” in his late teens, carving out a 224-game career with Gembrook.
“I probably played 30 games in the seniors but most of those others were in the reserves,” he said.
“I used to play in the backline. Back in those days we drop kicked and I could do a decent drop kick.
“Got married of course and my wife kept complaining that I’d come home every Saturday night carrying corkies or something like that so decided to take up umpiring and that was in 1979.”
So for the past 40 years, every Saturday afternoon, you would find Pruysers on a local football ground in the eastern suburbs.
The grandfather of two also backs up early on Sunday mornings, umpiring junior games.
EFL life member Phil Hermann said Pruysers had helped mentor many young footballers.
“One of the focuses for him is to make sure every kid gets a kick and during the course of the season, every kid gets a goal,” Hermann said.
“He has a lot of fun with the under-8s competition and is still doing the under-8s after nine years.”
Hermann said Pruysers’ achievement was unheard of.
“Martien is certainly well ahead of anyone I have known,” he said.
After about 1400 games as a field umpire, Pruysers now officiates the goals.
He says his most memorable game was a reserves grand final back in the 1990s.
“The game was going along all right, players were on edge a bit and someone pushed someone over in the middle, we paid the free kick and all hell broke loose,” he said.
“We made 15 reports between all the umpires, went to the tribunal, everyone pleaded guilty and they came away with 99 weeks of suspension.
“It was just one of those things, they were all hyped up, no one was really hurt but we made the reports, they all pleaded guilty, we all shook hands afterwards and everyone was happy.”
Pruysers is still as passionate about the game as when he started, but he’s not sure how much longer he has left.
Family and travel is about to take over. He’ll do a game “here and there”.
“If I’m home I’ll umpire, if I’m travelling somewhere, that’s it, but I’ll still keep involved in some way or another,” he said.
“It’s a great life, umpiring, I’ve met some really, really good friends and can probably hold my head up high at every club in this association and be made welcome.”
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