Umpire Roadshow hits the Riverina
The 2014 Southern NSW Umpire Roadshow concluded on Tuesday afternoon after 3 days packed full of Umpire group and School visits across three Southern NSW leagues.
On Sunday morning the roadshow kicked off with an educational / skills session at Maher Oval where approximately 25 umpires attended. Current listed AFL Field Umpire Scott Jeffery and Boundary Umpire Tim Morrison took the RUA umpires through a journey from their grass roots umpiring to making the elite AFL panel. They also managed time for a skills session that the group found invaluable. RUA Umpire Coach Manager Tim Beard said “Scott and Tim were fantastic” and looked forward to seeing them run around this year on TV.
From Maher Oval we headed over to West Wyalong for another session with the Northern Riverina Club Umpiring group. The session was similar to the morning one but in this instance both Scott and Tim were exposed to a league that relies heavily on Club Umpires and the challenges they face including training and umpire education due to the large geographical area of the league. Scott and Tim were surprised to hear that some umpires travel over 4 hours to officiate a game of footy. Monday saw the roadshow travel to Ardlethan central School and Wade High School in Griffith. Both these school visits aimed to promote umpiring as an alternative to playing and also to educate the students to respect umpires and the role they play in a football match. At the end of each session the students got to practice their boundary throw in and centre bouncing, often with great success. Hopefully we can increase the awareness of umpiring in those schools with the introduction of the School Based Umpiring Academies which has worked so successfully in Wagga Wagga.
Finally on Tuesday the roadshow headed down to Albury with a visit to Billabong High School in Culcairn, a Hume Football League Luncheon in Walla Walla and another school visit in Albury where AFL NSW/ACT worked with the North East Umpires Board from Victoria to deliver a joint presentation at Xavier College. At 4.30 pm on the Tuesday the roadshow concluded after a massive 3 days. I would like to sincerely thank Scott Jeffery and Tim Morrison along with all the Leagues and Schools who participated in making the roadshow a great success.
Anyone interested in taking up umpiring can contact me directly:
Troy Mavroudis – Umpire Development Coordinator Southern NSW
Ph:0410 472 151
Email; troy.mavroudis@aflnswact.com.au
