VAFA Umpires attend AFL training

As part of the VAFA Umpires Round & AFL Community Umpire Week, the AFL invited six young umpires to attend their training at Ikon Park, Carlton to gain an experience of a standard week and training the elite officials undergo.

Campbell Hymans (pictured with Ethan Zohar from SMJFL who also umpires with the VAFA & AFL Umpire Nathan Williamson), Lachlan Carney, Vo Schofield, Braydon Ross, Sophie Gleeson & Zak Pollak were selected to represent the VAFA at this amazing experience.

Sophie, a Goal Umpire, gave a recap of the night;

On Tuesday 30th April 2019, 6 Umpires from the VAFUA were selected to attend and experience AFL Umpires Training at IKON Park – Carlton Football Club in Carlton. Zac Pollak and I were lucky enough to attend on behalf of the Goal Umpiring Team. The night was broken down into two sections –  1.Theory and 2.Practical Training.

Doug Gourlay (National AFL Goal Umpires Coach) and Chelsea Roffey (Current AFL Goal Umpire) lead the theory session which gave us great insight into what would be discussed between the Coach and Umpires. As a team we reviewed 4 snippets of footage from last week’s matches and discussed what the AFL umpires did well, what they could have improved on and if you end up in an unlucky situation which leaves you in the wrong position, what would you do.

After the in-depth discussion, the umpires went outside to the oval and participated in an AFL Umpiring training session. In this session we covered of 3 main drills. With Doug and Chelsea coaching us, we participated in “The Sideshow Ally” and “The Monash” which are practiced with match day intensity, focusing on speed and agility then “Razor Blade” which is also practiced with match day intensity but focuses on positioning. The best advice that was given to us was to use training sessions to take the opportunity to try things out, as there are no consequences if things go wrong. Overall it was a great night and gave us some tools and knowledge to take back to our own teams.

Thank you to the VAFUA who gave us this opportunity to attend training. It has definitely fuelled the fire and inspired us to reach new goals in our training and match day performance

VAFA Umpires Round is on Saturday May 4, celebrating umpiring in the VAFA.