Last week saw the AFL’s National Youth Girls Championships played in Mandurah, Western Australia. 

For the second year, these championships formed part of the field umpiring talent pathway. 10 umpires from throughout Australia were selected and took part in a high performance live-in program.

Darryl Sinclair, Dean Margetts, Steve Clark and Tim Priest from WAFC coached the field umpires, whilst AFL umpires Jace Collingridge, Brett Rogers, Matt Laycock and Luke Edwards coached the local boundary and goal umpires. The effort by all these guys was amazing and all umpires appreciated the knowledge shared.

 The umpires also visited the local Peel Umpiring group and joined community umpires in their training drills. This was especially pleasing to see the young umpires get their first taste of being an umpiring role model. 

Congratulations to Lachlan Head from NSW on his selection as the All Australian Umpire for the championships. 

Finally, the umpiring was terrific with strong performances in all matches. All of the umpires showed marked improvement throughout the week and this was highlighted by strong performances in the two division finals.