With the restructure of the Talent Pathway for umpiring, it was recognized that our future WAFL and AFL umpires needed to have opportunities at a senior community level before progressing to the WAFL. This has led to the development of The Junior District Talent Squad program.
The JDTS program has been in place for three years, and has seen 13 umpires progress to Senior Community Umpiring (WAAFL and PFL) with another seven umpires being promoted to WAFL.
We have three Junior District Talent Squads in place being the North, South and Peel. The aim of these squads is to take talented junior umpires and provide them with the training and match day coaching necessary to progress from Junior umpiring to Senior umpiring.
Each squad has been named after prominent umpires, being Craig Hendrie (North), Dean Margetts (South) and Geoff Hayes (Peel). All three have a role in their squads, presenting to the umpires and providing a positive role model for them to follow.
The squads use the WAFL 14’s, 15’s and 16’s carnivals as a selection trial for the two squads. The umpire coaches at each of the junior districts are asked to nominate umpires from their squads that they think are ready to progress. The umpires are then coached and assessed at the carnivals, leading to selection in the squads.
The umpires in the program train as a group one night a week, where they receive feedback on their previous match performance, undertake practical skill exercises, as well as coaching sessions using resources such as the AFL Laws of the game DVD.
The umpires also train with their junior umpiring group, to be a role model and to mentor younger umpires in the system.
The coaching of these umpires is vital to their development, and WAFC Umpiring would like to thank Colin Gray and Jason Tyrrell (Dean Margetts JDTS), Sam Davis and Brad Nairn (Craig Hendrie JDTS) and Martin Davis and Geoff Hayes (Geoff Hayes JDTS) for their efforts in developing the umpires in 2011.
The programs have had 36 members throughout the 2011 season, with new umpires being introduced to the squads throughout the season. The Talent Squad Umpires have been exposed to PSA 1st XVIII games, and Senior colts football during the season.
We feel that this program has provided a great learning environment for these umpires, and a chance to develop their skills. We look forward to continuing to develop quality umpires in the program.
Picture: Members and coaches of the Margetts and Hendrie talent squads.
