On Saturday night there will four very dedicated Top End umpires taking part with the NEAFL second semi final between NT Thunder and Mt Gravatt Vultures at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.
The Northern Territory contingent of the NEAFL Northern Conference umpires will be lead by eight time NTFL grand final veteran goal umpire Kieth Pratt and will be joined by former AFL, now Queensland based goal umpire Brent Fewkes.
On the boundary will be two Territorians Hayden Kelly and Hayden Clark joined by Queensland’s Nick Wade and in the field Cameron Johnson-Pfeiffer will be the emergency umpire with former AFL and locally grown product from Darwin, Jason Baldwin leading the field umpires with Aaron Hall and Andrew Stephens from Queensland.
The four NT umpires have be supported by other enthusiastic and dedicated Top End umpires during the NTFL off-season with Adrian Rossiter, Shaun Ostler and Darren Witham goal umpiring Thunder home games in Darwin.
Shaun O’Brien, Roy Baehnisch and Sean Ranie have been also running the boundary, all of our umpires have being training continuous for over 12 months now.
“A big thanks to our Alice Springs umpires, who have umpire on the boundary and in the goals for the four Thunder matches in the Red Centre each season,” AFL Northern Territory Umpiring Development Manager Mark Noonan.
“I am hopeful that some of the younger guys currently umpiring NEAFL during the dry season can continue on the national umpiring development pathway and maybe make the AFL one day with their hard work and dedication”.
“We are currently looking for more umpires for the NTFL Competition that starts in five weeks time; it doesn’t matter if your 13 or 65 years old, male or female just come down on a Monday or Wednesday night from 5.40pm at TIO Stadium No 2 oval and have a crack at umpiring and might surprise how well you go”.