WAYNE Campbell will attack his new role as Greater Western Sydney football manager with the same passion he showed as the head of AFL umpiring, his former whistleblower colleagues say.
They will send him off with their blessings, but also with great regret.
Giants coach Leon Cameron has hailed the 43-year-old's arrival at Homebush, declaring his former Richmond teammate was "a football person who takes challenges head on".
Campbell will confront challenges in the country's most competitive sporting market, but his chief umpiring lieutenant agreed with Cameron's view that his was an inspired appointment.
"He'll give his heart and soul, that's for sure," head umpires coach Hayden Kennedy told AFL.com.au.
Umps boss heads north for Giant challenge
"Because of his personality and character, people really follow him, and you knew he was the role model and that was expected.
"You're never left wondering what he thinks, and he also has a great balance between hard work, success, expectation and the ability to celebrate the successes along the way, which is really important."
Those impressions on Kennedy were instant – he said Campbell instilled "a football club mentality" and placed a premium on high performance and elite standards on his arrival at AFL House in early 2014.
That approach to the game was honed during 297 matches with Richmond and various coaching roles with the Tigers and Bulldogs.
"The umpiring department had a pretty good culture, but we didn't have anything we could compare it with," Kennedy said.
"The coaching set up became more aligned with an AFL club, so we got extra assistant coaches, a development coach, a high performance analyst, a pathway umpires and coaches system and female coaches.
"At the end of Wayne's first season the whole umpiring group went over to New York to have a look at all the different sports and how they were officiated.
"And one of the first things we did was incorporate a values system, which covered courage, integrity, support, unity and mastery."
While the respect and friendships he built among the umpiring fraternity will be long-lasting, Campbell's greatest legacy may be his tireless efforts to make the under-appreciated vocation easier to perform.
Seven-time grand final umpire Brett Rosebury said he and his fellow whistleblowers had benefitted greatly from the revolution.
"He was always trying to make umpiring easier," Rosebury said.
"He was able to go to (football operations manager) Mark Evans and put a case forward, and Mark backed him in with whatever resources we needed.
"If there was a way we could interpret a rule better or give clarity to the clubs or the media, he'd help us.
"Wayne put in place whatever it took to make us better, which is his philosophy."
Kennedy agreed: "He would often be a driver of change in regard to the rules, whether it was diving [in] with the head, deliberate out of bounds or protected area, he had plenty of conversations with the powers that be.
"The four-umpire system had been trialled before, but we thought it was necessary to try it again.
"He was extremely passionate about what he wanted to achieve, where he thought umpiring should be and his work ethic was outstanding."
So it comes as no surprise to Kennedy the Giants identified his old boss to fill such a vitally important role.
"You could see his managerial skills develop as he went along and you knew an opportunity would arise for a general managers job or something similar," he said.
"We're all a little bit flat he's leaving, but he's made such an enormous impact in his short time he was with us."
