Australia faces a serious issue with how sports umpires are treated, one that could have ramifications on the future of the country’s most popular sport: Australian Rules Football.
Consider former CFMEU boss John Setka, who earlier this year targeted the AFL’s new head of umpiring, Stephen McBurney, vowing to “pursue him to the ends of the earth”, threatening to derail key football projects unless the AFL removed McBurney from his role.
This isn’t just a union battle over power – it highlights a troubling trend that’s been simmering across Australian sports: the growing disrespect and abuse directed at umpires and officials.
While Setka’s tactics provoked outrage and extreme condemnation from government officials, his campaign is a symptom of a much larger and deeper issue that could potentially damage the fabric of this great Australian sport, from the professional leagues down to grassroots.
Without umpiring, the sport cannot function. To ensure its continuation, the AFL and its relevant government bodies must take decisive action to protect its officials.
Umpire abuse once again marked what should have been a riveting finish to the AFL home-and-away season between St. Kilda and Carlton, when halfway through the second quarter, a frustrated Blues fan launched a water bottle on field, hitting a goal umpire and drawing blood.
The umpire, Steven Piperno, was subbed off for the rest of the match and received medical attention.
This most recent incident is an addition to a long list of official abuse.
Culturally, this behaviour, while immediately condemned by commentators, the AFL, and the Carlton Football Club and cheer squad alike, has been cultivated over a century of spectating the sport.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
A simple Twitter search during any match over this weekend’s round of finals will see death and harmful threats propagated towards umpires officiating the games.
Tweets like this are directed towards umpires on a weekly basis
However, abuse is not only affecting those in professional leagues, but those in grassroots.
The 2022 ‘STOP UMPIRE ABUSE’ report, conducted by West Australian Football Commission, found that more than eight in 10 umpires were verbally abused during the 2021 football season, and 80% of spectators considered this a “serious issue”.
Moreover, the report identified abuse as the leading factor in a lack of umpire retention.
In 2022, former AFL CEO Gil McLachlan conceded that the sport was facing a shortage of approximately 6,000 umpires, from the elite levels to the grassroots, a gap exacerbated by significant growth in amateur and women’s leagues.
But one cannot simply pin this shortage on league expansion, and it is clear that the AFL recognises that umpire abuse is unacceptable on any level.
So why has the league not sought a grassroots solution for this issue that has infiltrated and tainted the very fabric of Australian sports spectatorship?
One young official, 14-year-old Ceana Moorhouse was almost driven to quit umpiring because of spectator abuse where she was confronted by a man who was “about five metres away in my face…ten times taller than me”.
Moreover, Moorhouse stated that she had been targeted as a result of her age and gender.
Research into umpire abuse, conducted by Victoria Rawlings, shed light on a disturbing trend: when umpires face abuse from crowds, minority statuses are frequently targeted.
This is particularly troubling in a sport where women make up 32% of participants, yet only 11% of umpires and a mere 2.6% at the AFL level.
The abuse aimed here isn’t just offensive – it underscores the broader issue of discrimination and bias within the sport.
(Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Over the past few years, new dissent rules have been put in place, wherein if an umpire considers any language or action by players to be disrespectful, the player concede sa freekick or a further 50 metre penalty if the complaint came following an umpiring decision.
Despite this initiative, sports media critics and fans alike were frustrated with the contentious nature of what constitutes ‘dissent’.
Players were penalised for holding their arms out after questioning an umpire’s decision.
ESPN football columnist Jarryd Barca was one critic, stating: “I’m all for protecting and respecting umpires, but hasn’t this rule already been somewhat of a disservice… Fans are more outraged than they’ve ever been”.
It is without question that umpiring AFL-standard football is a difficult task.
The rules on which the game is built are highly interpretable. The holding-the-ball rule is based on “prior opportunity”; a designation to a player in possession of the ball who is either balanced, attempts to evade an opponent, taken a mark or been awarded a free kick, driven their head into a stationary or near stationary opponent.
Each rule has a similar listing, with multiple interpretations to be made play-by-play. As such, it is easy to understand how some fans misdirect a frustration founded in a lack of understanding of the rules onto those officiating the games.
New AFL CEO, Andrew Dillon, and Laura Kane, executive General Manager of Football have been vocal in their support for umpiring and the importance of complete transparency to clubs and fans about decisions made in games.
Dillon, in July of this year, stated that umpiring has “never been better”, and Kane has often stepped in to defend or admit fault in contentious officiating decisions made in-game.
It’s this second action by Kane that serves as the ultimate remedy to umpire abuse: transparency.
Lifetime bans have not worked, but perhaps avenues through which fans and clubs can be educated on rules from umpires themselves could help remedy this fractured segment of our sporting nation.
We need to humanise our umpires, rally behind them and try to understand how and why they make the decisions they do.
AFL, like any sport, relies on the integrity of its officiating to ensure fair play.
The abuse of umpires not only threatens the quality of the game, but also deters future generations from stepping into these crucial roles.
It’s time for the AFL, its clubs and fans to take a collective responsibility to shape a culture that respects its officials, based on three key pillars of change: education, transparency and empathy.