AFL Vic | The AFL and broader football industry across the country will celebrate Community Umpiring Week during Round Nine of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
Community Umpiring Week highlights the integral role umpires play at all levels of the game, encourages people to consider getting into umpiring and promotes the importance of respect for umpires.
There are nearly 15,000 umpires registered in community football around Australia in 2023 across the three umpiring disciplines - field, boundary and goal umpiring - with more needed to cater for the game’s growth.
The following is occurring over the next few weeks:
- AFL umpires at Round Nine matches will be led on to the ground by community umpires, giving local league umpires a taste of an AFL match-day experience
- Around 90 AFL-listed field, boundary and goal umpires will attend community umpiring training sessions across the country
- AFL umpires will officiate junior community football matches alongside developing community umpires
- AFL Executive General Manager Game Development, Rob Auld, said: “Community Umpiring Week has been really successful in recent years in raising awareness around the importance of umpires from grassroots through to elite and getting community umpires connected with umpires at the elite level.
