There has never been a female boundary umpire in AFL men’s history. Kaitlin Barr wants that to change.
The 26-year-old high school physical education teacher is one of seven female umpires promoted to rookie positions on the 2025 senior AFL umpire list, as part of the league’s female talent acceleration program.
Rookie umpires Kaitlin Barr (far left), Jordyn Pearson, Gabby Simmonds and Georgia Henderson.Credit: AFL Photos
Barr – who umpired this year’s AFLW grand final between North Melbourne and Brisbane – joins fellow Victorians Greta Miller and Melissa Sambrooks on the rookie boundary umpires list.
“That’s the dream,” Barr said. “I think any of us, Mel, Greta or I would love to be the first female boundary umpire and lead that pathway. To see more girls and women involved in AFL is amazing.”
Eleni Glouftsis (field) and Chelsea Roffey (goals) have blazed a trail but no women have yet umpired boundary at AFL level. It demands elite running and the ability to throw in to the ruck contest.
Barr decided to try umpiring in 2016 in her final year of high school and was instantly hooked. She quickly progressed and has umpired AFLW and men’s VFL games for the last two years.
In the 2024 season, 32 per cent of AFLW umpires were female – the highest representation in the league’s history and a nine per cent increase from last year.
Umpire boss Steve McBurney praised the growth of female umpires in the women’s league, but said umpiring for men’s and women’s football at a community level remained “a work in progress”.
The game was 6000 umpires short across the country in 2022, and Essendon coach Brad Scott last year labelled the shortage a “massive concern”.
McBurney said the league needed to keep building umpiring numbers to match the explosion of participation.
“We’ve got a record 20,396 umpires registered nationally this year … which is a huge improvement,” he said. “But we are also facing an increase in registrations with 585,000 registered footballers across the country.
AFL umpires boss Steve McBurney in his officiating days. Credit: Getty Images
“Fifteen or 20 years ago, there was nowhere for girls to play football. Now we can provide a game for an aspiring girl who wants to play football in community all the way up to AFLW ... Now that challenge is, we’ve got to work that little bit harder on getting women and girls into umpiring so we can service those games.”
Out of the 20,396 registered umpires, only 13.6 per cent are female. McBurney hoped that number would increase above 15 per cent at the end of 2025.
He also wanted to see female umpires in AFLW grow from 32 to 40 per cent in the next three years.
McBurney said the league was focused on providing a “safe and supportive environment” for more women to take up umpiring at a community level.
In 2022, the AFL introduced a dissent rule designed to improve on-field respect towards officials and crack down on umpire abuse.
Later that year, the league apologised for the treatment of female umpires, which was detailed in a leaked research report that uncovered a culture of sexual harassment and spectator abuse.
McBurney said the league adopted a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of umpires, highlighting the recent life ban handed to a spectator who threw a water bottle at an umpire during the Carlton-St Kilda game at Marvel Stadium in August.
McBurney said the league had a “remarkably resilient group” of senior male and female umpires who have access to extensive support, including sport psychologists to help them “mentally prepare for what they face in AFL games”.
However, that support was not available for community level umpires.
“We don’t have sport psychologists deployed throughout the country to support community football ... however what’s been successful for us is our women’s accelerator program,” McBurney explained.
“We can provide specific coaches to our aspiring women and girls who want to umpire at a higher level… in helping them deal with the occasional unacceptable conduct, more so from over the fence.”
Barr has copped “a little bit” of abuse at senior level but said the problem was much worse in community football.
“In the state league, VFL and AFLW, there’s a lot more policing. In the local league, that’s where it’s actually worse.
“State and national levels ... they are really quite strict about it and try to set an example for the local league, because sometimes you did cop a few words from spectators and as a junior umpire ... it really teaches you to have a bit of a thick skin.”
Barr said it was important for girls and women to see themselves represented.
“There’s been some VFL games, where I’ve been the only girl in the panel and I’ve actually heard young girls say ‘Oh dad look, that’s a girl’, and point at me,” Barr laughed.
“Being that example is really important.”