Australian Football

football goals

Are you aware that it is feasible for an experienced AFL Aim Umpire to earn over $20K in season officiating in Australian Footy League competition? That is brilliant, is it not? Even more brilliant was that Queensland aim umpires travelled abroad to London & Los angeles in the work of the late 1990s to officiate in demonstration games & were paid a $5000 bonus on top of an all-expenses paid trip!

Were you aware that Queensland produced the first female aim umpire to umpire in an AFL senior match? It was Katrina Pressley, (All of us call her "Kat"). It was a great achievement for a young woman to break in to of the last bastion of the male -Australian Footy umpiring.

football goals

I started aim umpiring some years ago to keep involved in the game. I thought it would be a actual cushy job. I soon discovered how wrong I was when I turned up to training on the first night. Aim umpires actually had to do endurance jogging, sprinting & extensive stretching. Are you able to think that? Then, to top that off, each month the aim umpires coach timed us jogging three kilometres & the coach expected our jogging time to get better every time. At the finish of training, they then had a 30 minute lecture on the rules, on positioning & on cooperation between umpires.

I wondered why all this training was necessary. But I soon discovered you must be fit to stand for long periods at a time. You often had to move quickly to get under the flight of the ball. You must even be observant.

Let me tell you about some of my experiences as a aim umpire. Let me start with my hat issue. Aim umpires were necessary to wear a hat. On windy day, my hat was unstable on my head. It did come off at an inappropriate time as a player was about to kick for aim, in front of me & among a group of players. I had to keep my eyes on the ball but I, also, managed to grab my hat as it fell when the ball was passing through the goals. I followed the flight of the ball the whole time & looked to the field umpire for the "all clear". The aim umpires' coach was at the ground. After the game, he accused me of not seen the ball at all but relying on the field umpire to get his "all clear" to tell me it was a aim. He didn't think that I had seen the ball go through the aim. I was demoted the next seven days to a lower grade game.

football goals

Part of our training was to learn to make use of the appropriate signals to convey messages to the other umpires on the field, the field umpires & the boundary umpires as well as the other aim umpire at the other finish of the field. This was to be positive no mistakes were made by you or the other umpires.

Aim umpiring can be dangerous, . Players will use you as a "target" Often there's scrimmages close to the aim line. "Being on the line" to judge when the ball crosses the line to score can lead to you being knocked over by players contesting the ball.

 of my great pleasures of aim umpiring was to umpire a curtain-raiser to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba (Brisbane Cricket Ground). It is great to have the crowd noise & excitement around you. On such day, I was standing watching the game behind the aim line when this small voice of a young lad standing near the fence said "my brother knows you. You taught her Maths". That brought a smirk to my face & I  lost my concentration on the game.



football goals