Melbourne champion Garry Lyon has encouraged footy fans to avoid snap judgments around the AFL’s new-look umpiring structure for matches, saying it’s unlikely supporters will notice the extra whistleblower on the field.
The AFL is pushing ahead with its plan to boost the number of on-field umpires in games – the first increase in 29 years – with four field officiators to oversee matches this year.
7 News Melbourne on Tuesday night reported the AFL had ticked off on the change – which had been mooted by the league publicly in August last year – after a strategic four-month trial.
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While four umpires have been trialled in past AFL games, the league over summer worked particularly closely with AFL NT, using the NTFL as a platform to trial the four-ump system across four rounds. A team of AFL umpires – including seven-time Grand Final officiator Simon Meredith – and umpires coaches also travelled to Darwin to help develop the system, which has also been used in recent match simulation at AFL club training sessions.
Speaking on SEN Breakfast on Monday morning, Lyon said he was hopeful footy supporters would show patience as the industry adjusts to the extra ump number.
“My attitude to this and what I’d be encouraging supporters to do … because umpires are an obsession of our fans, as it is in most sports around the world: Don’t worry about it. I don’t think you’ll know,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“I’m not telling them (fans what to do) – they can do whatever they want – but I’m saying there were four umpires trialled in games last year, no one told anyone about them and no one knew. No one came in on a Monday morning on our show and go ‘did you see those four umpires? They ruined the game.’ No one even knew they were trialled.
“They clearly think they can lighten the load so the longevity for the good umpires will be there – all those sorts of things. When you have a game of footy playing and four umpires are being trialled and no one knows about it, don’t worry about it.
“We see umpires overruling other umpires – that happens now with three umpires. If you think that’s going to be an issue – it probably will be – but it’s an issue now.”
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Pool of umps increased to 40, less fatigue could see some officiate two matches in a round
Previous four-umpire trials have resulted in a slight free kick number increase but a decline in intense running. 7 News Melbourne reported umpires could now clock up less than 10km in an AFL match – well down from around 16km per game some averaged during the three-umpire era.
The extra body on the field means the senior umpire list will grow to 40, but the inevitable reduction in kilometres run could see some whistleblowers officiate in two games per round.
“There’s definitely been a reduction in threshold running and high-intensity running, which hopefully will lead to us being in a better position more of the time and then hopefully optimises decision-making,” trailblazer umpire Eleni Glouftsis told 7 News Melbourne.
Meredith added: “Research shows we sometimes make errors late in games late in quarters due to fatigue. Hopefully our mind’s clear and we can make the right decisions when they come up.”
Nathan Williamson, who’s about to enter his seventh AFL season as a field whistleblower, said he was confident the new system wouldn’t lead to matches being ‘over-umpired’.
“With change comes a bit of apprehension, but I’ve been really, really impressed with how it’s played out in the practice games,” he said.
“I don’t agree with the sentiment that more on the field will increase the frees, purely because there’s still always going to be one umpire in control.”
