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Umpire (Australian rules football)
Encyclopedia
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
of Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
.
Origins
Football
Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
, where the official
Official
An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority .A government official or functionary is an official who is involved in public...
is called a referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, which is played on the same types of fields and was an important aspect in the origin of the code (umpires sometimes officiated both sports in the early days of the game).
Tom Wills
Tom Wills
Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian rules football....
was the earliest known umpire of a football match in Australia.
At first the captains of both teams shared the duty of officiating games, however as the game became more professional in the 1880s, umpires became an important aspect of the game.
Types
There are four different types of umpires and one type of steward in a typical game of Australian Football:- Field umpire - (equivalent of a referee in many other games, and sometimes referred to derogatorily by fans as white maggot - see below) There are typically three at professional level (Australian Football LeagueAustralian Football LeagueThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, as introduced in 1993, the AFL has trialled four umpires in the pre-season cup) and one or two at amateur and semi-professional level. Field umpires are generally responsible for doing a bounce down and ball-upBall-upA ball-up in Australian rules football describes a method of restarting play at a neutral contest after a stoppage within the field of play. It is not to be confused with a boundary throw-in which occurs in most cases when the ball is forced out of bounds...
during stoppages, awarding free kicks and fifty metre penalties, and reporting players.
- Boundary umpire - (equivalent of a linesman in many other games) There are four boundary umpires, two on each side of the field - having half each. The responsibility of boundary umpires is to determine if the ball has left the field of play, in which case they may throw the ball back in to play (a throw in) if it touches the ground first, or advise the field umpire if the ball went out on the full (to award a free kick to the opposition team). Boundary umpires also return the ball to the umpire in the centre circle to recommence play.
- Goal umpire - One at each end of the field; two goal umpires at each end have been suggested and trialled at times to reduce errors of judgement. The goal umpires are the official score keepers who signal goals and behinds and work in tandem with the boundary umpires when the ball goes out of play near the goal posts. Goal umpires signal scores either by raising their arms in front of them at waist height, using one for a behind and two for a goal. After a score, the goal umpires at both ends wave flags to confirm the score. After each quarter, the umpires check their scores, and if they agree with the score on the board, they wave their flags to the timekeepers. Goal umpires traditionally wore a white suit and coat, though in recent years those at AFL games have worn more casual attire such as baseball caps.
- Emergency umpire - used as a replacement if an umpire is injured. Monitors the play from the bench for behind the play incidents and will enter the field if required to break up scuffles and fights between players and enforce the blood ruleBlood ruleThe Blood rule is a rule used in many sports that states that an athlete that receives an open wound, is bleeding, or who has blood on them or their clothes, must immediately leave the playing area to receive medical attention...
. Like field umpires, they have the ability to report (or sometimes eject) players. Oversees other officials, such as club runners, and interchanging of players.
- Interchange stewards - although they are not officially an umpire, there are two of these at a match. They oversee the interchanging of players, and make sure no more than 18 players per team are on the field at any one time; they report to the emergency umpire to allow free kicks and fifty metre penalties to the opposite team if a team has more than 18 players on the field.
- Multi-tasking - in 2006 and 2007 the AFL trialled allowing goal and boundary umpires to pay (award) free-kicks when they observe an obvious offence that isn't seen by a field umpire.
Modern umpiring and the AFL
The game of Australian rules contains many "grey areas" where application of the rules is subject to interpretation, making the job of field umpires extremely difficult. The instigation of new rules by the AFLAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
in recent years, also contributes to the amount of work needed for umpires to maintain their skills and knowledge of the game. The umpires' director for the AFL is Jeff Gieschen
Jeff Gieschen
Jeff Gieschen is a former Australian rules football player who played in the Victorian Football League between 1974 and 1978 for the Footscray Football Club. He was senior coach of the Richmond Football Club from late in the 1997 season until the end of 1999...
, responsible for setting precedents for other affiliated leagues around the world.