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Goulburn Valley Umpires Association
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Wayne Byers and Don Oliver
Last Saturday morning I had the great pleasure of umpiring Tallygaroopna and Stanhope thirds. What’s that you say, how can that be a highlight? The answer is because during the prior week I had a call from my mate Wayne Byers saying he was now ready to make his comeback to umpiring and he would do that game with me. For those of you who do not know, about 13 months ago Wayne suffered an aneurism and to be honest he nearly did not make it. A couple of us went to Melbourne a couple of times to visit him while has laid up in the Epworth Medical Centre and particularly the first time we went, we witnessed the severe paralysis he was suffering among other issues. Despite this he did show he had kept his sense of humour as when we walked in, and Reg Hudson was one of the guys who came with us, Wayne made a joke at Reg’s expense that we all enjoyed immensely, Reg enjoyed it as much as we did. Back home in Kialla now and Wayne has said that he has a couple of boxes he wants to tick. One was to get his driver’s license back and the other was to umpire a game of football again. The license came back before, so now he was ready to tackle the next box; umpiring and it came on Saturday. He went really well, no doubt not as fit as he once was (who is?), but still having the steely determination to get the job done that he has always had. Wayne is just about the best umpire we have ever had in this area and is also just about the best umpires’ advisor the GVFUA has ever had, and it is terrific to see he has made such a marvelous recovery. Maybe he will do a few games in the future as well, but we will not put any pressure on him, just let him go along at his own pace. I have mentioned the two boxes he wanted to tick, but there is another one still to happen. He wants to witness Collingwood win a grand final. I hope he does not have long to wait for that one. Don Oliver.
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