AFL Barwon women’s football call: Umpire boss reveals position

AFL Barwon officials announced at the start of December that the primary date of football would change for the senior women’s fixtures, moving from Sunday to Friday nights.

But while some clubs have opposed the change, with St Mary’s women’s football director Amanda Flynn saying the club could lose up to 35 players due to other commitments, regional director of umpiring Jock Hillgrove said it was a positive change for the rule-callers.

“Friday footy will be okay from our end as it will open up greater opportunities for people to umpire,” he said.

“The spread across the weekend on different days provides a good spread of games and opportunities for people who may play football for example, they’ll be available at different times.

“There are quite a few umpires that would do two games on a day, this way they can spread it out across a couple of days rather than just on the one.

“It’s an opportunity as well for different people to do senior football.”

The local football scene in Geelong and the Bellarine had about 600 umpires across the different levels of competition in 2023, however that number is expected to balloon out ahead of next year.

Hillgrove said registrations for 2024 were already exceeding 150, which is more than any December date since the Covid-impacted seasons, with a three per cent increase to the salaries helping get umpires on board.

“We’re well ahead of where we’d normally be,” he said.

“We’re hoping to have a bit of a spike in the next week or so, and we’re hoping to get over 200 on board before Christmas.

“We had more than 600 last year, that number has been growing each year for a while, and we think the more money we can give umpires the better attraction umpiring is.”

Originally published as AFL Barwon women’s football call: Umpire boss reveals position