The Place to Umpire
This Wednesday (April 3rd) we will be hosting our season launch for 2019!
Round 1 is this Saturday (April 6th), so this is a great opportunity to celebrate the beginning of the season with all umpires.
Drinks & dinner will be provided, starting from 6.30pm upstairs at Elsternwick Park. All umpires are encouraged to attend, and families & friends are more than welcome. See you there!
The VAFAUA sends a huge congratulations to Andrew Heffernan, who has joined the AFL Field Umpire list for 2019!
Andrew started umpiring on the Boundary as a 12 year old at the Yarra Junior FL, before switching to the Field. He came to the VAFA as a Field Umpire in 2010, going on to officiate our Premier Grand Final in 2012. He joined the VFL Development list in 2013, and has gone from strength to strength, including umpiring the VFL Development League Grand Final in 2016.
Andrew was ‘Rookie Listed’ with the AFL in 2017, and has acted as Emergency umpire for many AFL games over the last 2 seasons. He had a very successful AFL Womens season this year, and will officiate the AFLW Grand Final this coming Sunday.
Andrew is a great example of the YJFL/SMJFL – VAFA – VFL – AFL pathway, and has previously acknowledged the significant influence of our Premier Squad coach Tony Hales, along with our own Brian Goodman and Geoff Deveson from the YJFL, on his umpiring career.
Andrew joins a number of former VAFA Umpires at the AFL, including Nick Brown, Chris Donlon, Cameron Dore, Leigh Fisher, Andre Gianfagna, Simon Meredith, Rob O’Gorman and Brent Wallace.
Congratulations Heff, and we look forward to seeing you out on the big stage!
It has been another very successful off-season for our VAFA alumni, with a number of additions and promotions within the VFL system!
Jackson Gillespie, Hamish McCartney, Luke Myatt and Joe Dorrat Thorpe have all successfully joined their development squads.
This year we also have three promotions to the VFL Senior lists – Josh Ball (Field), Adrian Pretorius (Boundary) and Jack Stammers (Goal).
Josh and Jack join their respective Senior lists in just their second year at the VFL, and Adrian in his Third – absolutely outstanding achievements!
VFL Senior
Peter Bailes (F)
Josh Ball (F)
Christopher Doyle (G)
Patrick Dwyer (G)
Andrew Heffernan (F)
Adrian Pretorius (B)
Jack Stammers (G)
VFL Senior Development
Sam Beer (B)
Jacob Rockwell (F)
Raushaan Seychell (B)
VFL Development
Tope Adepoyibi (G)
Joe Dorrat Thorpe (G)
Jackson Gillespie (F)
Hamish McCartney (F)
Jake Marnie (G)
Luke Myatt (B)
Jack Punshon (B)
We also have a number of umpires officiating in the AFL this year:
AFL Field
Nick Brown
Chris Donlon
Cameron Dore
Leigh Fisher*
Andre Gianfagna*
Andrew Heffernan
Simon Meredith
Robert O’Gorman
Brent Wallace*
* With VAFA through the AFL Player to Umpire Program
AFL Boundary
Damien Cusack
Matthew Jenkinson
Michael Saunders
James Scully
AFL Goal
Matthew Dervan
Steven Piperno
With such an extensive VAFA alumni throughout the VFL and AFL system, the VAFA truly is the place to umpire!
A huge congratulations to former VAFA umpire Andrew Heffernan who has been appointed to officiate the AFLW Grand Final between Adelaide and Carlton this Sunday.
Andrew has had a number of impressive years at the VFL, and as an AFL Rookie, and this appointment is a wonderful acknowledgement of his consistent performance.
With the VFL and AFL lists to be finalised over the coming weeks, we hope to report more great achievements by our VAFA umpires very shortly!
Footy is back this Thursday, and it is time to get your tips in!
Tipping is once again through FootyTips.com, and our league is ‘VAFAUA19’.
Sign up here: http://www.footytips.com.au/comps/vafaua19
It’s free to join, and there are great prizes throughout the year. Sign up and tip now – you’re currently tied for First Place!
For those who use ‘creative’ user names – please email us to let us know who you are!
For the SuperCoaches amongst you, we also have a league: 719634