Mark Noonan, Vice President of the Umpires of Association and umpire of over 25 years, is set to umpire his 300th TIO NTFL Men’s Premier League game this Saturday evening when Darwin Buffaloes take on Nightcliff at TIO Stadium, making him the first field umpire to do so in TIO NTFL history.
Noonan began umpiring as part of the Brisbane Juniors in April 1996 and soon after was named in the Queensland Umpiring Academy list at the start of 1998.
After driving to Darwin as an Interstate Field Umpire with two other Gold Coast Umpires, Noonan started to umpire in the TIO NTFL in October 1998 before driving back to Queensland after the season in late March 1999. Noonan couldn’t stay away from the NTFL and later drove back to Darwin in October of that year, just prior to Round 1.
On Sunday 23 January 2000, Noonan was named in the top nine Field Umpires and debuted in the Men’s Premier League.
Noonan said it his first Premier League game between Waratah Football Club and Wanderers Football Club game at Gardens Oval alongside fellow field umpires Greg Ostler and Brad Ainslie was a great experience.
“I loved being in a field umpire team with those two, especially in a game which had a very muddy centre square and 20 goal margin,” he said.
“I went on the do the next four rounds straight in League to finish off the Home and Away season, umpired the Men’s Reserves Grand Final in March of 2000 and even won the Most Improved Field Umpire as voted by coaches that season before driving back to Brisbane.”
After being offered a newly created Umpiring Development Manager position with AFL Northern Territory in October 2005, Noonan packed his bags and moved permanently to Darwin.
“Back then the average League field panel age was 43 years old in the 2005/06 TIO NTFL season with only a dozen junior umpires in total across the NT – a lot has changed these days after I set up the AFLNT Junior Umpiring Academy back in March 2007.”
After his time with AFLNT, Noonan became an NTFL Umpires Association committee member and over the course of his umpiring career, had been appointed to 10 but has umpired nine TIO NTFL Men’s Premier League Grand Finals, missing one due to sickness.
“The Grand Finals I have umpired are definitely some of the fondest memories I have, along with breaking my Rep Game drought earlier this year when NTFL took on Glenelg,” Noonan said.
AFLNT Umpiring and Coaching Manager, Darren Pfeiffer said it’s fantastic to have someone of the likes of Noonan be part of the TIO NTFL Umpiring fraternity.
“The NT was very lucky to have Noons come across as a young umpire and choose to continue his career and life in Darwin,” he said.
“He is a sensational leader of the group who maintains his professionalism and leads by example.
“He is a role model for all umpires and is such an important part of the NT football community. We look forward to having him umpires for many more years to come.”
Noonan is set to walk out to umpire his 300th TIO NTFL Men’s Premier League game at 7pm on Saturday 30th October at TIO Stadium.
Noonan’s other umpiring achievements:
- Has umpired over 500 TIO NTFL matches across all divisions
- NTFL Umpires Association Life Member - March 2017
- AFL Northern Territory Life Member - March 2020
- NTFL Umpires Association Field Umpire Award (voted by the umpires) – 2011/12, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2018/19,
- ABC Umpire of the Year Award - 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2018/19
- Has umpired many remote Northern Territory Grand Finals and carnivals.