TOPIC:

For those who are unaware a new system will be implemented this year in that all clubs from C2 to C4 must nominate a club umpire to go into the pool for league games.

The panel coaches will appoint all league matches from this pool to avoid the biased club umpiring that has occurred in previous seasons much of what we have read about on numerous posts on this forum.

Most of the allocations will be to neutral games.

It is also a prerequisite for the clubs to provide said umpire as part of their registration.

In order to stay in the pool the said club nominated umpires must attend compulsory training sessions mostly based around the rules and interpretations.

Match payments to both the field umpires will be from the home side just like higher grade games.

I think overall, once this is bedded in and any issues are ironed out, it will be a great improvement for the lower C grade league games and I suggest you wont hear any complaints from the players.

Good luck on that, it may take couple of years get it running smoothly but 2019 will be a mess.
The purple circle and favorites will be the same as the senior pannel.
Half the club umpires are club people and are not interested in being a pannel umpire as they may have been involved with that club for many years.
Why has 60+ umpires gone to clubs and not the senior pannel in in the past?

Good initiative by the League. A friend of mine was his clubs regular League umpire last year but has said he will now only umpire reserves so he stays with his club. I assume a few other clubs will have the same scenario.

Will the pool be for each grade ie one pool for C2 club umpires to only umpire C2 games or will the umpires be pooled over all three grades each weekend? Valuable game style, player information could be shared back to their clubs by umpires from the same league. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

CrampedUp brings up a very good point here in regards to which grades get umpired by who. I would have thought in order to prevent such information being observed, umpires must be umpiring outside their teams grade.

Tfl,
Dont see this (bit of intel) getting back to a club much of a concern as opposed to biased (cheating)
club impires!

By the end of the first round you have a idea on your opponents weaks and strengths just though game played
and contacts at other clubs.
A non issue

Stinker,
That is probably more the issue here. Either way, having umpires umpiring grades other than their teams own grade would go a long way to alleviating any sort of umpire bias.

Sounds like a few clubs are struggling to fill their league umpire position now that things have changed.
PFL has said if they don’t train they can’t umpire. Guess we will have a lot of games with only one umpire.
These people are Club umpires as they didn’t want to be a panel umpire.
I wonder who foots the bill for them having to attend training.

Cantbuyagoal wrote: Sounds like a few clubs are struggling to fill their league umpire position now that things have changed.
PFL has said if they don’t train they can’t umpire. Guess we will have a lot of games with only one umpire.
These people are Club umpires as they didn’t want to be a panel umpire.
I wonder who foots the bill for them having to attend training.

Cantbuyagoal they will not be panel umpires but they will be expected to learn the rules. My understanding is if they don't turn up to the compulsory nights their club will be fined the first time and the second time they will be cut.
I think that any club umpire can be appointed to any grade totally up to the panel coaches.

A number of people in the past, myself included, went from panel umpiring to club umpiring because they couldn't devote a night or two a week on top of Saturdays to umpire. In my case, I went to umpire for my local club because my wife had young children and I needed to devote more of my week to my family and there was also the benefit of being able to umpire five minutes from home nine weeks a season.

I am sure that a number of people who left panel umpiring primarily due to time constraints will be forced out of umpiring as a result and those who left the panel because of politics (or what they may have perceived to be politics) will potentially walk away too.

I agree with Cantbuyagoal that we may see some games with only one umpire and that is not a good thing.

CasualObserver wrote: A number of people in the past, myself included, went from panel umpiring to club umpiring because they couldn't devote a night or two a week on top of Saturdays to umpire. In my case, I went to umpire for my local club because my wife had young children and I needed to devote more of my week to my family and there was also the benefit of being able to umpire five minutes from home nine weeks a season.

I am sure that a number of people who left panel umpiring primarily due to time constraints will be forced out of umpiring as a result and those who left the panel because of politics (or what they may have perceived to be politics) will potentially walk away too.

I agree with Cantbuyagoal that we may see some games with only one umpire and that is not a good thing.

CasualObserver I don't think being asked to turn up once a month to learn how to apply the rules and how to administrate the game is too much to ask for being paid as much as the panel umpires who in the main train weekly.

You wont see any games with one umpire as the sanctions for clubs who do not supply an umpire for league games would be too much of a deterrence. The days of just turning up on a Saturday and walking your way through a league game and not applying the rules fairly and correctly are gone.