Now look I know I may be considered somewhat of a dinosaur in football terms having been out of the game in a playing capacity for a few decades now but ................ all this talk online, in the media and in the local Courier newspaper has goaded me to make my first post on this forum.

Nobody admits to liking the umpires, we all know this, and this is exacerbated by some pitiful grandstanding performances in the AFL most weekends which arcs us all up. But from where I sit in the comfort of my trusty stead at the footy in the hills most weekends, we are pretty blessed with, generally speaking, an honest bunch of hardworking officials who on most occasions go above and beyond their duties every Saturday during the season. The game is umpired like the SANFL used to be before this years weird rule changes. I personally know some of these blokes and they really do love their job. Yes it is a paid gig but I don’t think many of us would run around for about 6 - 8km’s in a morning game and then another 12 – 14km’s for an A grade game for the dollars on offer.

To read that an experienced A Grade coach had tee’d off at young ex SANFL umpire with a tirade of expletives during a half time break where the umpire apparently HAD to traverse this area to use the toilets, was very disappointing indeed. But to then have an article published in the Courier almost blaming the young umpire for the outburst is totally out of line. Basically inferring the umpires performance had goaded the coach to abuse him? I think the old Fossil who wrote that letter to the sports editor may still be stuck back 56 years ago if he thinks this kind of behaviour is OK in 2016.

Also this week it appears our excellent local rag has decided to get awfully personal with yet another very experienced ex SANFL umpire by naming and shaming him in the Hahndorf vs Uraidla write up for one, yep one, “ridiculous free kick”. Whilst I was not at the game I did share a cold one or two during the week with a couple of old Hahndorf players who were at the game (for past players day) and they assured me the performance of both umpires in the A Grade game for the day was pretty good in the view that they went mainly un-noticed for most of the day, and most certainly had no effect on Uraidla winning the game.

I thought I may be getting a little sensitive in my old age being a former club boundary umpire from many moons ago. So today I went back through the weekends footy reports in the Courier imagining I would see numerous references to “ridiculous” errors from players being personally noted also. As we see for ourselves clangers happen on a pretty regular basis to every player and every club. But to my astonishment poor old Kent Shillitoe from Mt Barker (sorry Kent) was the only footballer in the hills to make a mistake over the weekend worth mentioning in the Courier ?
Go figure, over 350 players mentioned in the reports and this poor bloke was the only one who had “a poor disposal”.
Not even a Red or Yellow card was a big enough "ridiculous" mistake to get a mention.
And likewise poor old Umpire Ross Wall was the only umpire to pay a “ridiculous free kick”.

Thank goodness the Uri lad didn’t allegedly flash his member at the Umpire, the poor old maggot would have been accused of goading him to do it !
Seriously?