AFL umpiring news: AFL umpires haven’t completed skills training in ‘years’
Imagine if Collingwood didn’t hold a training session for years. That’s the situation AFL umpires find themselves in, having not completed skills sessions all together in years. SAM LANDSBERGER has the exclusive details on the state of the AFL umpiring system.
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AFL umpires have not completed a skills session all together in several years.
The standard of umpiring has emerged as the biggest on-field crisis this season, with more than 10 games decided by contentious decisions and the AFL changing holding-the-ball interpretation mid-year.
Several of those match-deciding calls were later confirmed by the AFL as umpiring howlers.
Former legends, coaches and players have joined together in expressing their confusion and frustration over both the standard of umpiring and the direction from head office on rule interpretations this year.
The startling revelation that umpires do not participate in full-blown, high intensity skills sessions as a group has been confirmed by multiple sources.
It is in stark contrast to state leagues, where umpires train together twice every week.
Umpires practice fundamentals – including positioning, double-whistle technique, setting the mark, bouncing and decision-making during skills sessions. However, when some AFL umpires have been sent to help out at community level and asked to run skills sessions, it has dawned on them that several drills no longer take place at the elite level.
AFL umpires attend Marvel Stadium on Tuesdays to receive coaching feedback, which includes video edits from the AFL Review Centre (ARC) and umpire analysis manager Tim Neville. Neville has not umpired at AFL level.
They usually attend in casual clothes and are not always required to pack their runners. It is left up to AFL umpires to complete their own fitness training at local ovals weekly. That is tracked by fitness coaches through their GPS.
The AFL said on Wednesday night that umpires running and bouncing the ball on Tuesdays at Marvel Stadium qualified as completing skills work.
“The suggestion that umpires don’t undertake skills training is completely wrong and false,” spokesperson Jay Allen said.
“There is an umpire main training session every Tuesday night during season.”
The closest some AFL umpires get to partaking in a high-intensity skills session is accepting invitations for visits to AFL clubs.
They are paid roughly $400 to attend AFL club training sessions, although it is difficult for many AFL umpires to attend as they work full-time outside of their football commitments.
One of the difficulties in running umpiring skills sessions is that it requires them to mimic players, and sometimes they lack the ball skills for a productive session. But given the high level of scrutiny placed on the standard of umpiring this season, there is a level of surprise even internally that they have not been asked to complete skills sessions together.
“Can you imagine if fans knew we didn’t practice skills?” one umpiring source said.
“Or can you imagine if Collingwood went years without (completing) a skills session?”
It can also be revealed:
● THE umpire who paid a dissent free kick against Fremantle’s Jordan Clark in Gather Round was banished to the VFL for multiple weeks.
● UMPIRES were clearly told it was a mistake not to award Bailey Scott a 50m penalty in the North Melbourne-Collingwood match.
● SENIOR umpire Brett Rosebury recently told his colleagues to stop leaking to the media;
● CONCERNS over a lack of emerging umpiring talent was a key reason behind the decision to expand to four field umpires in 2023.
AFL football boss Laura Kane publicly ticked-off on both the dissent free kick and the decision not to pay a 50m penalty to Scott. However, field umpire Alex Whetton spent three weeks in the VFL after penalising Clark. Whetton paid that free kick in round 4, umpired Geelong-North Melbourne in round 5 and then was not seen again until the round 9 match between Hawthorn-St Kilda in Launceston.
Umpiring appointments are assigned two weeks’ in advance and Whetton’s omission following round 5 was a direct result of the frantic finish in the Blues-Dockers match at Adelaide Oval.
Kane has not commented publicly on any umpiring decision since the justification of the 50m penalty in the Kangaroos-Pies match.
The AFL wants veterans including Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith, Matt Nicholls, Ray Chamberlain, Chris Donlon and Rosebury – who are all aged in their mid-to-late 40s – to continue umpiring for as long as possible. Rosebury’s 525 games – including 52 finals and nine grand finals – is the most in VFL-AFL history.
Stevic (490 games), Meredith (489), Nicholls (432), Chris Donlon (421) and Chamberlain (384) are also in the top 10 of all-time and expected to continue in 2025.
Umpires are now required to run far less during matches, which means they could officiate well into their 50s, instead of the AFL relying on the next wave to take their places.
The best umpires – like 11-time grand final umpire Stevic – earn approximately $180,000 per year from the part-time position.
Originally published as AFL umpiring news: AFL umpires haven’t completed skills training in ‘years’