Business & Projects Report

Umpire Operations

Matt Dervan Umpire Operations Manager

The landscape of VAFA umpiring signifi cantly changed in 2021 with a new focus and direction on and off the fi eld. A new umpire coaching structure was introduced along with the implementation of a high-performance program.

Recruitment and Retention

We identifi ed that the retention of umpires was going to be a challenge with substantial change in personal and family circumstances providing new opportunities. The 435 registered umpires provided exceptional dedication and commitment to serve the VAFA competition with the best quality standard of umpiring in community football. Whilst our ability to recruit new umpires (120 in 2021) continued to remain at a solid level, for the fi rst time since 2015 our retention level fell below the fi ve-season average of 71% to 60% in 2021. The VAFA will work with the VAFAUA to ensure that in preparation for 2022 our core umpiring base of 2021 can be retained to push our retention levels back to previous years. The VAFA umpiring department have developed with the VAFAUA and umpiring sub-committee a recruitment roadmap from 2022 which we look forward to presenting to clubs so we can continue to lead metropolitan senior football in umpiring numbers and provide as many umpires to games in 2022.

Coaching

Led by Russell Davidson, Ryan O’Shea, Bernie Jephson and Matthew Clinton we had an experienced and revitalized panel managing the coaching, training and education of our umpires. We were able to provide every umpire a dedicated coach that they were able to work with and be developed by to reach their full potential. Despite the 11 weekends of VAFA football we were able to have 238 VAFA games across all competitions observed by our coaches and observers averaging just over 21 games per week where our coaches were able to assess, coach and ultimately improve umpire performance. I would like to thank all our coaching staff for their dedication and commitment to providing the best quality coaching in community football at the best community umpiring training facility in the state. The umpiring department created an allocation policy in 2021 which provided all clubs a clear indication of how umpires were to be allocated across the season. This document will be reviewed annually, and we look forward to continuing to provide clubs with information and transparency to how umpires are appointed to VAFA football. During these times connection and support were vitally important and through the work of Guy Hexter we were able to provide a welfare program through Facebook with a dedicated check in space to have umpires connected through activities despite not being able to be together. Supporting our umpires in all aspects is a key priority of the VAFA.

Training

Training in 2021 saw Wednesday night at Elsternwick Park and Westbourne Grammar School as the main session with a focus on fi tness, coaching and social with great a buy in from umpires as we averaged 100 umpires at training each night. First the fi rst time we were able to off er at home training programs for umpires that wanted to do fi tness sessions during the week without having to attend Elsternwick twice a week. The VAFA was grateful for the support of East St Kilda Sports Clinic and Gabriela Pecherskiy for looking after VAFA umpires in providing injury and medical support.