29.07.08
2008 Australian Country Football Council Championships
I have returned from my five days in Shepparton umpiring at the Country Football Championships. It was a full on couple of days which resulted in me umpiring roughly three and a half games of football in four days.
I didn’t really get a lot of time to check out much of Shepparton other than the Deakin Reserve where the games were held. As straight after arriving in Shepparton Wednesday afternoon we were transferred to the Umpiring HQ in Mooroopna and then basically told when we could use the bathroom, when we could breathe and everything else in a detailed down to the minute schedule of events for the next four days. It became a bit painful and a lot of the umpires were over the whole regimented nature schedule by about Friday.
The football was of a very high standard and was therefore rather enjoyable to officiate. I had the good fortune of being selected as one of the umpires appointed to the Final between the ACT and Victoria. I’m hoping the selections were on merit. Obviously umpiring the Final, which apart from the 2007 AFL Canberra GF and possibly the Seattle v Vancouver Cougars NWPAFL GF in 2005 was one of the biggest games I have umpired.
The game was, despite the wet weather, of a high standard to umpire, and it was only the last quarter effort from the ACT that led to the final margin of 21 points, after being within a goal at the turn for home. It certainly gave Shaun and I an interesting bus trip back to Tullamarine with the team. The plane trip back at 7:30 the next morning was noticeably quieter.
So I arrived back in Canberra at 9:00am yesterday feeling sore, tired and footballed out. Luckily it’s back to it all again this Saturday as the AFL Canberra season has only three rounds before the finals begin. Also now that the Championships are out of the way the focus switches firmly to Triathlon now as the big date approaches.