If you’re an Aussie Rules fan, you know umpires are essential to the game. Without umpires, there is no game. I am an umpire and understand what goes into the craft. I often find myself sympathising with them given that the game has been complicated to a point that almost every umpire interprets each contest differently. 

Unfortunately, umpiring is so often the talking point of at least one game a week. Most weeks, more than one. 

As an umpire, our stereotypical objective is to ‘blend in with the game’ – to ‘not be noticed’. The one that gets drilled into us at the Victorian Amateur Football Association is ‘clear and obvious’. Sometimes I feel as though the umpires at the top level forget this. It’s not even entirely their fault either. 

As I mentioned, the reason I can sympathise with the umpires is due to the actual difficulty of umpiring the game. In essence, umpiring is not that hard but the way the game is umpired makes it seem much harder than it is. 

Umpires will often be criticised for ‘over-umpiring’ but I think that’s the way they have been pushed towards doing it. It should be known too that not only is every decision scrutinised by the fans but also the higher-ups in the AFL umpiring sphere. Every single decision is either judged as correct or incorrect and umpires will be reviewed after every match. 

Outside of the umpiring itself, the people who umpire (yes they are people with real human emotions too) must deal with constant abuse and booing, both in the stadium and online. Yes, they get paid well but the overall job itself is a challenge. 

Usually when umpires are reported on, it is all for the wrong reasons. It’s mighty hard for them to stay out of the headlines and unfortunately, they’re going to be in the spotlight for a little while longer. 

This will sound harsh but I believe that the Geelong v Brisbane Preliminary Final in the AFLW on Saturday night was the worst umpiring display in any professional sports game I have ever seen. It is not a reflection on the people who are doing it. There’s no name-shaming or anything like that to be done because this game brought up a much wider issue – the standard of umpiring in Australian Rules Football. 

It has been a theme that I and others have certainly noticed throughout the AFLW season. The umpiring standard is very, very poor. It’s disappointing more than anything. Disappointing for the fans, for the players, coaches and for the league. If we want to attract more viewership, we cannot have massive games being heavily altered by poor umpiring. 

Sure, I may have my blue and white tinted glasses on but it wasn’t just the Geelong fans who saw what happened on Saturday night, everyone did. On prime-time television. 

So often in finals and in close games, the umpires will have the thought of letting the game play out – of not ‘over-umpiring’. The term often used is ‘putting the whistle away’. This is usually seen as a good idea. However, there is a mighty fine line between letting the players play and missing blatant free kicks on a consistent basis. 

That was the story in the Geelong game. The umpires were clearly in the mindset of putting the whistle away but they seemed to take that phrase way too literally. The last three minutes was appalling. It had me jumping off the couch yelling in exasperation, even pleading with the umpires to pay the most obvious of free kicks. 

Those final few minutes are a key theme in umpiring. That idea of letting the game go always comes out late in games, particularly big ones. It’s almost as if the umpires are scared to umpire the game at risk of affecting the result. But again, what does it come down to? Clear and obvious. 

It baffles me how this is literally the best women’s AFL league in the world and, yet, we don’t have the best umpires in the world. 

Not every game has been poorly officiated of course and I think that umpires should be credited more when they do a good job. But overall, it’s awfully disappointing. 

You could maybe say ‘well why aren’t the AFL guys umpiring it?’ Most fans will tell you that they probably would not do a much better job. 

The idea of the AFLW, in terms of umpiring, is to provide a pathway into the AFL umpiring system. It used to be a progression from VFL to AFL. Now it is VFL to AFLW to AFL. 

What this tells fans like myself is that the talent pool is obviously limited. There’s only so many people that actually get an opportunity to umpire at the top level so you’d imagine they’re truly the best. 

I think if you grabbed three young hot-shot umpires from the VAFA, they could do a better job. This sounds harsh and unfair but I honestly think so. I’ve been in and around training and umpired with many different people. We keep things simple and that’s the way it should be done. 

The AFL as a whole seem to have lost their grasp on the simplicity of the game. It’s become too complex and a nightmare for umpires which leads to games like what we witnessed on Saturday night. 

As a Cats fan I’m obviously gutted (you couldn’t tell!?) but, more importantly, as a fan of the game, I’m frustrated and worried for the future of the game.

Photography credit: Dave Hunt