WHEN I played, which is now 20 years ago, there was a stronger connection to umpires because of a few simple practices, which by the very nature of the growing professionalism in the game, no longer exist.

One was the after game function where players, coaches, officials and the umpires would meet informally in a setting conducive to discussing the game just played and the decisions made or not made. It certainly wasn’t argumentative. On the contrary, it was educational and helped both parties understand each other better.

Allan Jeans, Hawthorn’s coach for most of my career, would always invite the umpires from the previous match down to training the following week, another practice not widely undertaken in today’s game.  At the end of those training nights, Jeans would oversee the questioning of decisions arising from the weekend.

After a while, Jeans would finish up with his oft-quoted statement about umpires, "I’ll tell you this. They don’t make as many mistakes as you guys."

It was probably true, but what is more important to grasp is that, whether an umpire makes one mistake or 100, they will never change it. If you can view umpiring from this position, then you can grasp the futility of arguing against decisions. Most players can and do. It’s the spectators who often struggle with this.

My father became a VFL umpire after he failed to reach the level he wanted with his football. When I quizzed him about why he took on umpiring, he simply said it was a way of being involved with the game he loved at the highest level.

I believe that his understanding of the game as a player helped him in his umpiring, but more important was his love of the game. Without a love of the game, umpires, like players, can never hope to be successful.

Umpires, unfortunately, have always been targets for player, coach and spectator abuse. Regrettably, it has been a part of the culture in football; a culture the AFL and community football have been trying to change for a considerable time now.

Let’s pretend you are visiting a game of football for the first time ever. I suggest you will be amazed how much time and effort people spend yelling or commentating about umpire decisions or non-decisions. 

Often not in a vindictive or crude way- though this happens- but as though it is all a part of the experience of going to the game.

Fortunately from my observations at junior football over the past ten years that I have been involved, the behaviour from everyone towards umpires has generally been very good.

At every game I have observed, both teams have always given three cheers for the umpires after the match.

That may not sound significant, but it is a small gesture which helps young footballers appreciate the role of the umpire. And when coaches never complain or yell out over umpire decisions, then players and spectators tend to follow their lead.

The professional levels of our game will always have enough umpires of quality to officiate, but we have a crisis looming if our participant numbers continue to grow, because we simply do not have enough umpires now to cover the number of games being played.

So how can we help? I say we as it is everyone’s responsibility to support umpiring. 

Try and see umpiring in these terms. There is not a player who does not compete to the best of his ability on any given day, but we don’t yell or abuse him or her for their errors. Umpires do their best, so why do we hold them in such contempt for their errors?

While it is great to have a focus on umpiring for a week, where all our community leagues and their clubs will support it, as well as having high profile support from AFL coaches and players, it is imperative we keep the match day environment for umpires as supportive and welcoming as possible.

Our failure to understand this could mean a lot of community football matches being played without them. That can only be detrimental to the future growth of our game.