Weekly Times | WAYNE Hamilton believes there is one goal to try to achieve as an umpire — be invisible.
That was hard to do on the weekend when he broke a major Goulburn Valley Football Umpires’ Association record.
Central umpire Hamilton, 46, surpassed the 503-senior game record in the GVFUA, which covers senior leagues Goulburn Valley, Murray, Picola and District, and Kyabram District.
He umpired the Shepparton Swans and Echuca match, which the Swans won by 39 points.
“If I’m umpiring with someone, or younger people that I’ve mentored over the years, that’s my philosophy with them but I’m probably a bit of a hypocrite this week,” he said.
It was his 504th senior match with GVFUA, but including his Western District Umpires’ Association matches he has five more matches to get to 600 senior matches, and in nine more games he will reach 800 games in total.
Umpiring the 2000 GVFL grand final between Shepparton and Shepparton United was the highlight of those games, and he has overseen 20 senior grand finals since he started umpiring in 1985.
Hamilton comes from a family of umpires. His father, Graeme, has retired but his two older brothers and nephews umpire in Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo.
He says the changing of the rules or their interpretation is the hardest thing about umpiring.
“I reckon in time it will become very uniform, which is a very good thing for the public and the umpires,” he said.
