West Australian Football

Each year the future stars of the game put their skills to the test at the National Under 18’s Championships in a bid to forge careers in the AFL.  Just like the players the umpires who officiate in these games have ambitions to one day reach the AFL, and are part of a development program which gives them some exposure to being involved at the highest level.  The following article documents the experiences of one of WAFL’s up and coming field umpires, Chris O’Connor, as he took part in this program.

Sunday 1 June 2008

Today was the first match in the NAB U18s AFL Championships for the participating WA umpires.  The game saw WA take on NSW/ACT at Subiaco Oval, the curtain raiser to the Fremantle v. Port Adelaide game. I was running the game with my fellow WA U18 Championships representative Mark Bowden (field), Matt Laycock (goal), Richard Heptinstall (boundary), as well as Jeff Mann, who is the field umpire who has been selected to represent WAFL umpiring at the NAB U16 Championships in July.  My preparation for the game today was hampered by a mild adductor strain at training earlier this week. Although not a bad strain, it was significant enough to prevent me from being able to accelerate and change direction quickly, both of which are important requirements for umpires! I was still able to run the game out, however was not able to move around the ground as freely as I would have liked.  The game itself was not particularly close on the scoreboard with WA winning by 70 points, however the intensity of the play and the skill of the players was impressive. Having run with Bowds and Manny a number of times this season, the three of us teamed well together.  This evening was focused on injury management, considering the adductor has pulled up particularly sore.

Saturday 21 June 2008

Round 3 of the Championships saw the return of the WA side to their home turf to take on Vic Country at Subiaco Oval.  I have rested for the main part of the last couple of weeks, with the main priority being to ensure that my adductor strain is completely healed before the remaining games of the carnival. I have managed the injury by completing pool sessions (walking and jogging) every couple of days, lots of icing, lots of stretching, and gently easing back into training this week.  Today’s game saw a massive lift in the intensity from the previous game that I had umpired.  The physical pressure applied by Vic Country seemed to rattle the WA boys and as a result the team went down by 27 points, a surprise upset. Because of the intensity and physical pressure, as umpires we had to be particularly vigilant to have a presence at volatile infringements and keep an eye on things that were going on off-the-ball and behind play.

Friday 4 July 2008

Bowds, Matt, Richard and I flew out of Perth this morning for Melbourne. After a few issues checking in, it turned out that the customer service assistant who helped us get seats together was a distant relative of one of the WAFL goal umpires, which caused a bit of a laugh amongst the four of us – too bad we couldn’t pull an upgrade to Business Class though!  On arrival we met a number of umpires from other states who had flown in to umpire in the carnival.  This evening was spent at AFL House, where we were officially welcomed by AFL Umpiring Development Manager Jim Cail.  Jim outlined the expectations of the umpires for the remaining rounds of the Championships and we brainstormed in groups a number of team rules and values that we would display on and off the field. Amongst those included maintaining a professional approach to our umpiring and the carnival, which included a complete ban on alcohol and gambling. The appointments for the next round were then announced before heading back to the hotel to prepare for the next day.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Round 4 of the Championships saw all three games being played today at Casey Fields, home of VFL side Casey Scorpions.  I was appointed to the third game of the day, that being Vic Metro v NSW/ACT, however I was also been named Emergency Field Umpire in the first game (WA v Tasmania), which meant that I had a long day ahead.  Matt was appointed as one of the goal umpires in the Vic Metro v NSW/ACT game, and both Bowds and Richard were appointed to the second game of the day (SA v Vic Country).

The AFL made arrangements for all field umpires to wear the Matchcom vests in all three games today, which are the same audio devices used by the AFL umpires. The televised ABC games in the WAFL have microphone vests, however Bowds and I had never been exposed to the more comprehensive Matchcom, which is much lighter and also has an earpiece that allows direct communication between all the other field umpires.  It was a great experience to be able to directly communicate with the other field umpires without having to yell from one end of the field to the other.  The umpire observers were also able to hear the feedback from the Matchcom microphones, and hence it can be used as a coaching tool.  The experience was great and was enhanced further by being coached on the day by current AFL observer and 363 game former AFL umpire Bryan Sheehan.

Sunday 6 July 2008

This morning we had a recovery session at Xavier College in Brighton after breakfast. The recovery session was run by AFL Fitness Advisor James McEniry and included an extended warm up jog, a number of running drills and stretching, followed by a range of strength and conditioning exercises tailored towards umpires. This was then followed up by a run to Brighton Beach for 15-20 minute wade in the far from tropical waters of Melbourne – needless to say that few people from warmer climates around Australia were concerned that they had no toes afterwards, or legs for that matter! The recovery session was particularly beneficial in identifying ways in which we can prolong our umpiring careers and look after our bodies after games.  The recovery session was followed by a trip to the MCG for a tour, which was lead by former AFL player and dual premiership coach Alan Joyce, followed up by a trip to MC Labour Park (Optus Oval) to brave the cold conditions and watch the second half of the VFL match between Collingwood and Frankston.

Monday 7 July 2008

After breakfast this morning, the umpiring group headed to AFL House for a coaching session and review of our games from Saturday with our respective observers. My feedback was generally pretty good, in that they were happy with my decision-making, work-rate, and positioning.  However, I had a number of off-line bounces in the game and Bryan suggested that perhaps I needed to have a look at my technique to improve this aspect of my game. The group then reflected on the overall performance of all umpires, in which we identified a number of areas that we could work on as a group and take into our next games on Wednesday.

We then had a bit of free time before heading to Monash University for a training session overseen by AFL Field Umpires Coach Rowan Sawers and AFL Field Umpires Assistant Coach Peter Howe. The weather was less than favourable for the planned skills session, however Rowan and Peter subsequently lead an informal group discussion about the AFL umpiring group and philosophy, as well as some of the more technical aspects of umpiring between disciplines.  One thing that I really took from this session was that aspiring to be an AFL umpire is a choice, not a sacrifice – we must choose to train hard, we must choose to look after our bodies, we must choose to keep ourselves fit, and we must choose to strive to be the best umpires that we can be. It is important to focus on what we’ve chosen to do, not what we’ve sacrificed.

Tuesday 8 July 2008

Today was predominantly spent at AFL House for a series of Umpire Education Sessions.  Speakers for these sessions were AFL Director of Umpiring Jeff Gieschen, who spoke on the operation of AFL Umpiring; current senior field umpire Brett Rosebury, who spoke on leadership; AFL Fitness Instructor James McEniry, who spoke on Fitness and Conditioning; and AFL psychologist Ken Davis, who spoke on dealing with pressure. All of these speakers were inspirational in their delivery and I found that they really gave me some important points to think about in the way in which I approach my umpiring.

A tour of Telstra Dome was also organised for the day, and we then had a team photo on the surface of the ground as we saw the Dome roof close, which takes approximately 8 minutes. The appointments for the final round of games tomorrow were then announced.  Matt and I have been appointed to the WA v Vic Metro game, which will prove to be decider as to who wins the Championships and will also boast the expected three top draft picks for 2009.  Bowds has been appointed to the SA v NSW/ACT game, and Richard has been appointed to the Vic Country v Tasmania game.  We then had some free time, in which Bowds organised for the field umpiring group to get together and talk about some blue-moon situations that can happen in games that we may not necessarily prepare for, which was a very effective way of switching on for the games tomorrow.

Wednesday 9 July 2008

Today was the last day of the Championships and saw all three games played at Telstra Dome. Each of the games were being observed by current running AFL umpires, these being Matt Stevic, Stephen McBurney, and Hayden Kennedy.  We had been advised earlier in the week that the roof of the Dome would be shut in light of anticipated bad weather, but with nothing but sunshine first thing, a few of the blokes were a bit disappointed to see only the Melbourne skyline when we arrived out on the surface this morning.

Hayden Kennedy was the observer for my game, which was a real thrill seeing as he is the record holder for the most number of AFL games umpire (426 games), and will this weekend break the all time games record of any player or umpire. Hayden had some really good pointers for setting the game up and gave myself and the other field umpires a lot of encouragement as we prepared for the game.

The game itself was a very high standard however Vic Metro was easily too strong for WA, winning by 29 points. Again, WA was out-muscled by a physical Vic Metro side, and this required continual observation and presence around the play to ensure that nothing volatile escalated.  In general I was reasonably happy with how I went and Hayden gave me some good feedback, with a few pointers to work on to improve my skills.  The conclusion of the game saw the use of ice-baths (a first for me) as part of the “hot and cold” recovery, which was overseen by one of the popular veteran AFL trainers George Mather, before heading off to the airport with the remainder of the group to head back to our respective states.

All in all, the U18s experience for me has been truly amazing and one of the best weeks of my life.  I have learned a lot of valuable lessons and skills from both the coaching staff and other umpires that will assist my umpiring and I have also made a lot of good mates who I will hopefully have the opportunity to umpire with again in the future.

The content of this article and the views expressed are those of the author only and do not reflect the official view of the AFL, WAFL, or WANFLUA.