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Have been part of an A grade club but the lower grade sides don’t pay that for boundaries and goals. EG E grades D1&2.

One of the problems is that club umpires basically get paid the same as panel umpires so why would they bother doing all the training involved.

Agree to pay higher panel field umpire costs the league might have to kick in. Interestingly panel umpires have not had a pay rise in 5 years!!

I could see this comming for a few years now with a few loyal guys pushed out the door, almost no conection to the junior umpire panels.
Many on the panel doing 2 games in a row due to shortages/3 umpires in A grade.
$150 match payment for some club umpires has been around for a few years.
6 days to round 1 good luck to the C1 clubs finding umpires.

Clubs have been advised this morning that there will in fact be panel umpires for C1 league fixtures.

Great to hear if this update is indeed correct
Was hoping that waafl affiliated umps would come down to C2 sometime soon but looks highly unlikely if they are struggling to supply the higher grades.

I hope all clubs that have neutral umps treat them nice enough as its a hard gig let alone coping abuse from idiots on and off the field isn’t something I’d want to do no matter how many $ are paid.

Not exactly true waafl will supply some umpires this weeks as not all clubs could secure an umpire at short notice so they will make up the difference though I don't think it is a guarantee for the year

Watch this space. Could all change again for round 2. You can't have panel umpires running with clubbies it just won't work.

Do clubs use “club “ umpires for reserve and colts. If so surely that umpire can do the league game as that’s what happens in the lower grades. Sad to see not enough people umpiring these days but I guess people hate officiating these days as it’s hard to even get parents to help at juniors these days

The Major wrote: Watch this space. Could all change again for round 2. You can't have panel umpires running with clubbies it just won't work.

Perhaps it is a good option if it could be used to mentor and educate the clubbies, and provide unbiased feedback to the WAAFL on how club umpires are performing. Maybe it could be expanded and lead to more club umpires joining the panel. At the moment they only see other club umpires, and that's where the standard plateaus.

Vicko, at one round i was at last year 3 of the 4 club umpires were ex panel umpires with over 1000 games.