![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/NewChisVSthBarwon17_21081.jpg\")
Umpires attend training and development sessions in very similar ways to players. Photo: Michael Chambers.<\/p>\nTHIS green team has more than 500 members, and without them thousands of footballers across the region would be without a game each week.<\/p>\n
AFL Barwon has more than 570 league, club and volunteer umpires this season, a record number helping keep local football running across the region.<\/p>\n
Coordinating them all falls to AFL Barwon director of football umpiring, Jock Hillgrove, who faces the sometimes daunting task appointing umpires for the region\u2019s junior and senior games.<\/p>\n
Hillgrove must balance umpire availability with the skills and requirements of different age groups and divisions, ensuring the right people are officiating the right games.<\/p>\n
It can be a challenge but without umpires on the field, there would be no games.<\/p>\n
Hillgrove said umpire numbers were the strongest they had been in years, making the four-day task of assigning umpires to each game slightly easier than before.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of my role is the onboarding and ensuring everyone is accredited,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we have a group of about 25 that are umpire coaches, match observes and trainers, not too dissimilar to a footy club set up in terms of off-field support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the region, umpires are training just as hard as those taking the field to compete.<\/p>\n
Dedicated training sessions run twice a week and Hillgrove and his support team provide ongoing education opportunities.<\/p>\n
The rules of the game have not changed much, but their interpretation has.<\/p>\n
Open discussions and analysis sessions allow the umpires to better understand what calls are expected from them in any situation.<\/p>\n
Umpires attend training and development sessions in very similar ways to players. Photo: Michael Chambers.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hillgrove said umpiring is rewarding but can be extremely challenging, especially for the nearly 50 per cent who are under the age of 18.<\/p>\n
But while the first games can be intimidating, one of the highlights of his role is watching as new umpires find their confidence on field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch a young person who might be 14 years old umpiring their very first game in the field \u2013 they\u2019re like a newborn giraffe,\u201d Hillgrove said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get them through the game, and then game six comes along, they\u2019ve got 24 quarters experience and their improvement is 100 per cent. Their confidence keeps improving and we have to build confidence before we can build competency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try and focus on keeping them resilient and keeping them focused, keeping them confident and backing them in.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the very first things we say to new umpires is it\u2019s OK to make a wrong decision because that\u2019s better than making no decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like anyone, Hillgrove said, the umpires are simply doing their best.<\/p>\n
While umpiring can be challenging on the field, Hillgrove said the Geelong community is overwhelmingly supportive of its officials.<\/p>\n
He said a bit of sideline heckling is part of the job and it is exciting to see local clubs have passionate supporters.<\/p>\n
There is a line, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeckling is fine. Abuse is not,\u201d Hillgrove said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, 98 per cent of the time stuff goes really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great community \u2013 a passionate community \u2013 and passion isn\u2019t abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you cross those lines though, then you do need to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THIS green team has more than 500 members, and without them thousands of footballers across the region would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-753567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}