AFL umpiring boss Rob Kerr’s plea to the AFL to find a permanent base for whistleblowers

AFL umpires boss Rob Kerr says finding whistle-blowers a permanent home must be an ‘urgent priority’ for the league as the standard of refereeing comes under fire.

AFL umpires boss Rob Kerr has told the AFL Commission to find a permanent home for umpires as an urgent priority as he defended the time whistleblowers spend honing their craft.

The performance of the AFL’s umpiring crew has come under fire in recent weeks, with private fury from some senior coaches at the imbalance in hours of work and salary between football staff and umpires.

But Kerr on Tuesday told the Herald Sun it was imperative that the league gave the umpires a full-time home that would maximise their performance given continuing issues over access to Marvel Stadium.

The AFL is being urged by some industry figures to incorporate a football development facility into one of the redevelopments at the Moonee Valley and Caulfield Racecourses.

That kind of facility would allow the umpires to have a permanent training and administration base and might also allow visiting non-Victorian teams to train leading into MCG and Marvel Stadium clashes.

Windy Hill is also another option with an on-site pool and oval but would need a renovation of the current change rooms.

Waverley Park is available for sale but it has a price tag likely to be north of $20 million and is also not centrally located for AFL teams or the umpires.

Kerr told this masthead on Tuesday that continual availability issues with Marvel Stadium meant the three umpiring groups – field, boundary and goal – were often limited in their training each week.

The umpires train each Tuesday at Marvel Stadium but the massive lighting rigs needed to foster grass development mean often only a half of the ground is available.

It means boundary umpires cannot use the full length of the boundary, goal umpires often have access to one set of goals and the Victorian field umpires are crammed into a portion of the field.

AFL Trade Week starts, Rob Kerr, Essendon Bombers, Picture Yuri Kouzmin

“I would like to see a firm commitment from the AFL Commission to invest in an umpire facility,” Kerr said.

“It doesn’t have to be an umpire facility. Interstate clubs come to Melbourne and need a ground to train on. There are junior pathways and under-18 sides. Umpiring alone might not just justify it but there is a bigger picture.

“It is the actual performance of umpires (that matters) and providing the best possible environment.”

Asked whether he believed the AFL was serious about that facility, he replied: “When there is money set aside for it, that will demonstrate the AFL’s commitment.”

It is understood the AFL has been assessing options for a home base for the umpires with more work still yet to do.

Port Adelaide was the latest club to vent their fury this week over a series of key calls against North Melbourne amid continuing frustration from clubs over the workload and salary discrepancies.

Dougal Howard of the Saints can’t believe umpire Nicholas McGinness paid a free kick against him in the final term. Picture: Michael Klein

Assistant coaches are working more than 60 hours a week without due reward while umpires are paid as much as $180,000 a season for a single game each weekend and a three-hour Tuesday training commitment.

Geelong coach Chris Scott said last week that he hoped the umpires were “working as hard” as they could to continually develop and that “we should aspire to make things as good as possible”.

But the AFL umpiring crew also undertake recovery and commitment in their own time as well as an extensive summer training program officiating at training sessions and match sim with AFL clubs.

Umpires receive feedback and work on positioning, bouncing and current trends at Tuesday sessions, with the AFL recently introducing some virtual reality headgear to help umpires with decision accuracy.

But the lack of access to a home means umpires are aggrieved to be treated as second-class AFL citizens.

Some were recently shifted to Scotch College to train while an oval “used by dog walkers, full of holes and kids playing soccer” – according to one source – near the Westgate Bridge remains used regularly.

Ross Lyon speaks with Mathew Nicholls during the clash with Brisbane. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Kerr said on Tuesday he had few concerns about the amount of work being put in by umpires, who have resisted the move to being appointed full time.

“The challenge with umpiring is decision-making is the primary skill. There is the fitness side they take care of, they do review, they practice bouncing. But the decision-making is kind of hard to replicate. The AFL is going down the path of VR tech and it’s pretty incredible to use.

“The AFL umpires do an incredible amount of match sims over the summer but decision making is the key skill and once you are in the season the opportunities to practice that are rare.”

There are also concerns held within the umpiring fraternity about the depth at selection of the current cohort and what could lie ahead when key umpiring figures hang up their whistles.

A decision by the AFL to allow players to use hands in the back in marking contests has also made it more challenging for umpires to adjudicate an already-complicated rule book.

The umpires last year had to adjust to a mid-season holding-the-ball interpretation while this year they had to crack down on 15m marking contests with little warning.

“One of the challenges with the game is the interpretations and the way the umpires are asked to interpret the rules,” Kerr said.

“At times it is mismatched with the way the game should look. There is a lot of criticism but people don’t always have an appreciation of what the actual rules are.”