LOCAL umpiring has seen two significant milestones at different ends of the spectrum across the past week in the South West District Football Netball League.

Football umpires Sonny Sealey and Chris Evans are at contrasting points in their umpiring careers with Sealey notching up his first senior football match as a central umpire last weekend while Evans will officiate his 400th game tomorrow.

The milestones reflect the era umpiring is in with the need for young umpires to take up the whistle while its more senior members are continuing to help out to ensure games can be played.

Evans, who will hit his milestone at Branxholme where Branxholme-Wallacedale hosts Dartmoor, says he has been in the game for over 20 years.

“I’m not from Portland so I started my umpiring where I grew up because they were struggling for umpires and then I moved down here,” he said.

“I actually saw an ad in the paper for umpire training so I went down to get involved in that and have been umpiring ever since.

“I’ve been doing it for about 23 or 24 years now and I’ve only missed one game that entire time, other than the COVID break as well.”

After trying to move away from umpiring a few times, it’s always called him back out of both necessity and a joy for the “day out”.

“I tried to give it away a few times but they need people and at least you get a good day out of it,” he said.

“There’s nothing like just heading to a good game of country footy and everyone is out and about, eating their pies, drinking a beer and just have a good time.

“It would be great if we could get some more people involved, but you have to want to do it in order to have a crack – but once people have a go they really enjoy it.

“We have some young blokes coming through at the minute, it would be great to get a few more young people who want to have a go.”

Over his 20 plus years of umpiring, Evans said he’s experienced the evolution of the league as well as some major talents which are a highlight of his career.

“I think some of the exciting stuff has been umpiring the likes of Jeremy Cameron, Rowan Marshall and Jamaine Jones who are now all in the AFL, that sticks with you,” he said.

“There’s a lot of kids that I umpired starting in under-12s and you see them down the street now as 30-40-year-olds and you’ve watched them grow up.

“There wouldn’t be many people down the street these days that I wouldn’t know or have some connection to someone through umpiring.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Sonny Sealey began his senior umpiring journey last weekend after getting the call up due to his progress at games and training.

South West umpire coordinator Kevin Farley said it was a big step up but one that the young officiator was ready to take.

“He has really improved out of sight and from those that watched him on Saturday they said he did a great job,” Farley said.

“He was ready to take that next step and test himself out there. He’s taken to it really well, his strong with his calls, on the ball and knows the rules well.

“He’s umpired quite a bit of basketball which I think has helped him as well.”

Farley said it has been exciting to watch some new, younger umpires be enthusiastic about taking on an officiating role, which is critical to keep the game going in the south west.

“We’ve got a good group of umpires at the minute which is people from not only down here but Hamilton and Coleraine as well,” he said.

“We’re always keen to recruit more people, we’ve got another young fella in Clayton Cox who is going really well so it’d be great to get some more young ones involved.

“You watch sometimes kids who don’t necessarily take to playing football but love the game and want to be involved and they really get into umpiring once they give it a go.

“The main advice is having respect, communicate, treat everyone the same and let the game play.”