MaccaR

Made the trip up from Hobart as we are missing our standard Bellereve oval game this year. Lads looked sharp and seemed to spend a fair bit of time on forward entries. Petty seemed mostly forward and in good spirits. The mood seemed energetic amongst the players. Clayton seems raring to go.

Long time lurker. Been a member since 2008 (I know because I was in Afghanistan at the time when I 'donated' some of my war pay to sign up, who knew I would be lucky enough to get more PTSD from my football club than a warzone). My son quit playng in 2020, somewhat because of covid but mostly as he was a ok player in a really really good side and got relegated to the 2nd team where he was an ok player in a bottom of the ladder side. Didn't want him sitting around all weekend so signed him up to boundary umpire and he has loved it ever since. He gets paid over $100 to run for 2 hours. Bottom line, I got sick of hanging out at games in the cold and watching him run so this year I joined him. For context we live in Hobart Tasmania. Now, Tassie is different from Victoria but some observations. I have been critical of umpiring, but I have a new perspective. The state of umpiring here in Hobart is dire. Even in 2020 my son didn't need to train to get a weekend gig. I know I am reasonabley fit in my middle age, which is a big tick for running the boundary, but with zero experience I waltzed into running the boundary for Seniors in the TSL with my son. Field umpires are mostly my age or older and most have to do 2-3 games a weekend due to the low number of umpires. They are desperate for field and boundary umpires. 80% of the boundary umpires are under 14 years of age or younger. My son and I umpired a game where the 3rd boundary ump was 11. The money is good for a 16 year old, but for me....it's ok, beer money at best. Certiantly at my age I ain't motivated to do any more than I currently am doing. As for my son, it is not even factored as a career choice and he loves it. We need better pathways to recruit, mentor and guide young umpires to the top level. (Yes, for a start stop mucking around with the rules). But bottom line, any young kid that loves footy most likely plays. My son go a fair bit of stick for umpiring instead of playing from his mother's (Ex-Wife) family (Cough surname Wade, cough). Having said that, it is a position that attracts certain types that love authority but have no natural personal authority attributes in the real world. As a sign off, umpires are definately bias (don't get on their bad side), and they have bad days, but the responsibillty of the current state of the game rests squarely on the AFL, and we all know they care about only one thing $$$