Umpiring, it’s great. You get paid to keep fit, your working hours are more flexible than any other job I’ve heard of and you get the opportunity to do representative umpiring and travel around the state, around the country and even, if you’re lucky enough, around the world without having to pay for flights, accommodation or food. Recently I was lucky enough to get flown down to Sydney for an extended weekend to represent Queensland as an umpire in the Northern States Cup, an annual competition that is held to see which state out of Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory has the best school AFL team.
On the Thursday we were flown down. Our accommodation was the Sydney Gateway Holiday Park. This was a four star caravan park that was used as one of the Olympic Villages when the Olympic Games were held in Sydney. I was staying in a cabin with the four other umpires. We had a plasma TV, fridge, air-con and the bathroom was half the size of the sleeping area. On top of this the park boasted a jumping pillow (which is like a huge trampoline), a pool, a hot spa and good food including a pasta feast the first night.
The Friday was a round robin competition where all the teams played against each other. Unfortunately the competition was quite one sided with Palm Beach Currumbin winning all of their games quite convincingly on the scoreboard however this very rarely did justice to how good quality the football was and how close the games were. After Friday the matchups for Sunday were as follows: Dripstone V Knox (3rd V 4th) in the earlier Grand Final and PBC V Mater Dei (1st V 2nd) in the later Grand Final.
Saturday was a highlight of the weekend. It was basically a tour of the SCG plus a cruise on the Sydney Harbour and then some free time to wander around. The SCG tour was broken up into four parts: a light stretching session, a talk to the development officer in NSW, a tour of the SCG and its facilities and a ‘tour’ of Fox Studios (which was self guided by the umpire coordinator and happened at the same time that the teams were doing a training session that we were supposed to be participating in, coincidentally of course). The Sydney Harbour cruise was by far the most laid back part of the whole trip. The boat took us under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and then around the Opera House all the while we were enjoying the luxuries of pizza and unlimited drink refills. After this we had two hours of free time which we spent cruising around enjoying the food and the sights. The day wrapped up back at the accommodation watching WCE beat Carlton (which was made even better when we discovered that one of the other umpires was a Carlton supporter).
However, Sunday managed to top Saturday. The Grand Finals were held at GWS’s new home ground: Olympic Park which is an AFL field right next to where most of the track and field events of the Olympic Games were held. It has a small stadium on the Eastern side and a big grassy hill around the outside of the field. The field itself was incredibly green and soft. All in all it was quite scenic. However, the best part of Sunday was the change in the quality of the football. In the first game alone the intensity of the football had changed. The players were desperate and it showed in the change of pace at which the football was being played in comparison to Friday. I had been lucky enough to get the second game. Based around the performances on Friday I thought that PBC would run over Mater Dei but Mater Dei came out firing and were winning at half time by 20 points.
But a change in wind direction helped PBC to a comeback such that by three quarter time Mater Dei only had a 1 point lead. PBC were kicking into the wind for the last quarter but that neither disheartened them nor encouraged Mater Dei both teams came out after three quarter time with all guns blazing. Never before have I been part of a match that was so intense and close as this one, the crowd of 30 people sounded like a thousand strong and the players were playing like there was no tomorrow. In the end PBC sealed it with a goal in the last two minutes of the game.
By far this was one of the best weekends I have ever had and I hope that if anyone reading this ever gets the chance to go on this trip they take it.
Story Written by AFL Brisbane Junior Umpire Lachlan Fitzpatrick
Last Modified on 20/10/2011 12:44