By Tyler Lewis
The Officer Kangaroos Junior Football Club (OKJFC) is leading the way in bringing umpires back to footy.
The umpire shortage is evident to every player, coach, parent or fan this year.
And while it’s something most are aware of…Officer is pioneering the way to fixing the scarcity of umpires.
The Roos have led the way for umpire engagement and just last week welcomed the umpires to speak to its players about the benefits of becoming an umpire.
Officer president Shayne Honey believes his club has always had umpires in mind and is encouraging his players to grab a whistle and officiate.
“We have always had a bit of a focus on umpires,” he said.
“We think it is great for kids that play, to umpire as well, because they get a different perspective of the game.
“It can make people better footballers and it just also builds that player-umpire respect; we have had umpires train on the same ground as us for a couple of years as a way to get people more involved.
“This is the first time we have invited them down to speak to players and be more proactive with it as well, and that is mainly due to the lack of umpires across the whole of Victoria.”
Every year Officer sends out social media posts encouraging its players to look into umpiring and have confronted and banished patrons from its club who have abused umpires.
Honey and his committee have made a stand on the abuse towards umpires and explaining how an umpire making a mistake is no different to a player or coach.
“Without umpires, the game either can’t go ahead or we need to ask volunteers to umpire which is always difficult,” he said.
“If we can get people to umpire, they can get a bit fitter, earn some money, (and) then the game of football can continue.
“What we say to people at our club – coaches, players and parents – we don’t stand for any umpire abuse.
“Every player on the ground makes mistakes, everyone will give them a pat on the back and go ‘it’s okay, next time’, coaches make mistakes and generally people won’t know about it.
“But when its umpires, people seem to think they aren’t allowed to make mistakes, well umpires are allowed to make mistakes – we are all human, they’re human.
“People that want to umpire need to understand that Officer is making a stand to our parents and spectators that umpires are welcomed…and people that want to abuse them are not welcome.”
After Officer’s umpire engagement session last week, AFL South East has already had three expressions of interest submitted for new umpires.
