Day 5

We are starting to get into the swing of things now. A longer walk this morning as we had a day off yesterday and then breakfast. Division 1 day and as always the boys and girl were pumped to go.

Today we were working on the 3 umpire system for field and 3/4 umpire system for boundary. For some of the panel this is the first time they will work with the system at a professional level.

The best coaching tool for the field umpires that we have at our disposal is MatchCom. Particularly in a three umpire system, our umpires could coach and assist each other without having to yell out across field. We as the coaches were also able to talk to them from the box, just giving them some short, sharp advice. This enabled us to fix some positional issues much easier than it would giving feedback after the game.

The three umpire system is executed slightly differently in each state, so it was such a pleasure to umpire a group of people who were willing to learn the AFL standard and make adjustments to work on best practice.

Our trainer, Phil Watson, is starting to work his magic. The team are getting sore as they start backing up and Phil is fantastic as he takes an interest in every single umpire.

Back at the hotel we continue to video review every game in a 360 format. This is driven by the umpires as they discuss each game, giving critical feedback and working through issues. We look extremely professional when we have reviewed the game and acknowledged free kick errors before the teams have even had a shower.

The panel spent the night at the Rooty Hill RSL for dinner and an early bed as we have 4 games to cover tomorrow.