AFL NSW-ACT are targeting a couple of key areas in the hope of building up umpire numbers within the Riverina for the upcoming season.
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AFL NSW-ACT umpire recruitment and retention lead Tyler Hollingworth was in Wagga this week as the code looks to work towards their target number of umpires for the 2024 season.
The governing body has set their sights on 165 umpires for Riverina Umpires Association (RUA) and have gone past halfway in their bid to reach the target.
"We're sitting at about 55 per cent, so we've got another 45 per cent to go," Hollingworth said.
"We want 10 per cent growth so we're aiming at 165 for this year and we're sitting at about the 90 mark so it shows we've got quite a big gap for where we need to be.
"We're doing retention calls at the moment, retention emails, giveaways, all that sort of stuff. We're about to do a promo for training shirts. We're doing all that we can on the retention side of it but I think it's how do we get that extra 50 or 60 over the line to become new umpires."
The AFL believes there is an opportunity for women's and junior footballers to try umpiring while still playing the game.
"If you're a woman playing in the current summer comp, if you want to give back to the next gen of female footballers in youth girls footy, whether that be under 12s, under 14s, under 16s, you're supporting that next crop of girls that are going to come through and play in your footy team in the next 10 years," Hollingworth said.
Ninety-four per cent of umpires at the elite level played junior football when younger.
Mavroudis stressed they are not looking to take players away from the game.
"Juniors is another area where we could build numbers quite easily through juniors, who are playing and can umpire as well," Mavroudis said.
"You don't just have to be a field umpire either.
"We're not trying to compete with a club, we're not trying to steal them, it's quite manageable to do both. You've got all those different options, Friday, Saturday, Sunday."
Hollingworth said the numbers showed that younger umpires were needed in the Riverina.
"We want to target that younger demographic," he said.
"We're probably also looking for, ideally, that 18-25 age group as well. Your typical uni student who might not have time to commit to a casual job but a couple of hours on a weekend might be something they're into.
"We often say the best umpires are the 18 to 25 because they're quite mature at that age and they're fit enough to keep up with the intensity of the game.
"It's good to have the young group but we miss a lot in that middle bit as well. Probably one of the challenges we have here in the Riverina is we have a lot here in the young and we have a lot here in the old but not a lot in the middle.
"These games are quite a high standard of footy so we want to have that younger umpire running. It's still important that we have those experienced umpires, but we want a few more between 18 and 25."
Both Hollingworth and Mavroudis stressed that the RUA are willing to work in with people that have prior commitments or are limited with their availability.
"If you can only umpire once a month, or every second week, or have specific availability on weekends, we want to have you as part of the team," Hollingworth said.
"We understand people have other commitments. It might be work, it might be family, it might be school but we're flexible around all that," Mavroudis added.
Ultimately they want to build the numbers to ensure they have coverage for a busy football schedule.
"In an ideal world, say for example that Wagga Tigers have 10 teams, in an ideal world we want to have one umpire per team then that will allow us to have that coverage of games. That's a big focus for us," Hollingworth said.
"So if we can get per every 10 teams, we can have 10 umpires that will allow us to have coverage for all of the games in the region. We try do that in most of our regions in our state, that one to one ratio.
"I look for an example in Sydney and we have Pittwater Tigers that have 15 junior teams but only have two umpires (in the area) so when it comes to appointing umpires in that particular region we struggle.
"It's the same here in the Riverina, because you have clubs geographically apart from each other, if Griffith or Temora are struggling for umpires, it makes it hard for us to cover games in that area."
Interested or potential umpires can sign up for more information via play.afl/umpire or contact the RUA.
