Ump’s Corner Round 9

Last round we mentioned that Shannon Kirkby was selected to umpire the AFL Womens Match at the MCG. This week Shannon shares her story of running on the ‘G.

On Sunday May 24th I was selected to umpire the 2015 Women’s Exhibition Match between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs at the MCG. This game is played by the best 50 female footballers in Australia, where both clubs select their players through a national draft. The other 3 field umpires and myself are all part of Neville Nash’s Female Umpiring Academy, coached by AFL Umpire Mat Nicholls, with our boundary and goal umpires selected by their respective local associations to have the opportunity to officiate in the game.
We all met at the MCG at 10am before heading into the umpires rooms to prepare ourselves for the game. Not long after putting out bags down, we headed out to the ground. Walking out to the middle of an empty MCG to have a chat with Mat and a walk around.
After having our group photo taken, we went and saw both teams. You could sense the excitement of both groups. With the girls only coming together late in the week, they were finally at game day, their chance to showcase their skills.
Mat discussed our game plan for the day, protecting the ball player, pay all major and obvious free kicks, 100% effort for our 60 minutes on the field and most of all, enjoy the day.
Walking up the race to enter the ground, even though the stands were quite empty, you get the feeling of what it would be like to walk out on the day of a big clash, such as Anzac Day, or during the finals. The noise the small crowd made was such a thrill to walk out to.
I was fortunate enough to start the game, and thankfully, got the bounce up straight.
The skill level of the girls seems to increase every year, it was a much more defensive game with a lot more stoppages in comparison to last.
The four quarters of football gave an exciting showing of what women’s football in Australia holds. A fantastic game of football was played out, with the result being 8 points in Melbourne’s favour. I have no doubt that we’ll see a national women’s competition introduced within the next 5 years.

When that final siren sounded I was absolutely exhausted. I put every last piece of effort into finishing that game the way I started it and I could tell the other girls were feeling exactly the same, I was very proud of our performance as a whole. We all lined up for the presentation where the BOG was announced and everyone was thanked for an excellent game.
When we were all back in the rooms, Mat, Neville and Liz congratulated the team on our performance on the day. Mat then spoke with the field umpires separately, he just wanted to express how proud he was of us and the job we did. We did exactly what he wanted from us, we let the girls play footy.
As there were 3 match balls, each team, as well as the umpires were given one. Not knowing what to do with ours or who to give it to, Jan Cooper suggested that I, as the birthday girl, should get it as a reminder of my best birthday ever, all the girls and coaches signed the football which will always be a reminder of such a great experience.

Social Notes

Don’t forget Trivia Night, Saturday 27^th June in the club rooms at Elsternwick Park, 7pm for 7:30 start.