Policy cracks down on parents screaming from sidelines at footy games

Bad-tempered parents screaming at their kids, the opposition and umpires from the sidelines of footy matches have been put on notice, with a suburban league’s policy which has successfully cracked down on verbal abuse rolling out across Melbourne.

Parents who verbally abuse players and umpires at junior footy matches have been put on notice. File photo

Ball! Kick it! Thug! Blow your whistle!

Yelling out orders at players and umpires and abusing the opposition is all part of footy.

But when it’s parents directing their frustration towards kids as young as six, it can take a toll.

Essendon District Football League umpiring manager Rowan Sawers said the EDFL had been losing about 45 junior umpires a year because of verbal abuse hurled at them by parents on the sideline.

But an awareness campaign introduced by the club three years ago is changing all that.

Don’t Be That Parent, which aims to crackdown on overly emotional and abusive parents at junior footy matches, has been so successful 13 clubs in the EDFL have already adopted it.

An image from the campaign, which has had great success since Essendon District Football Club introduced it three years ago.

The club is fielding calls from across Australia from other clubs interested in the program.

By the end of the year that number will have doubled and ultimately Young said he hoped it would be picked up Australia-wide.

It’s already well on the way, with the club taking calls from as far away as Western Australia, and even from AFL Victoria, about implementing the campaign.

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EDFL junior co-ordinator Brad Young said Don’t Be That Parent had had a “huge impact” on player morale.

“I’ve seen parents yelling ‘tackle him’, ‘stop him’, and even stuff about knocking out the opposition,” Young said.

“It was quite nasty and it was from both sides so we chose to take a stand.”

In the beginning, he was the one enforcing the new policy with abusive mums and dads, but it had now become a self-moderating system with parents calling out bad behaviour themselves.

The ‘no abuse’ policy has empowered volunteer match day officials to approach abusive parents and tell them the club does not accept their behaviour.

Young said the footy field was “not a church” and it was not about silencing spectators, but rather encouraging them to scream out praise instead of abuse.