“It has to be stronger”: AFL great’s impassioned plea for improved umpire respect after damning report
Essendon legend Tim Watson has issued an impassioned plea for better respect for umpires across all levels of football after the Herald Sun leaked a report revealing a “boys culture” impacting female umpires.
The report by News Corp’s Sam Landsberger detailed the significant challenges young female umpires were facing at the community level, including being sexually assaulted and harassed.
It’s understood that the AFL did not want the report to be made public, however the league has since joined the chorus in condemning the findings.
Watson believes this latest report needs to be wholly addressed in itself, suggesting it’s intertwined with an overall “lack of respect for umpires”.
“That needs addressing in another way too, it’s all linked together, there’s a lack of respect for umpires,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“Human behaviours can be modified based on what’s accepted or what’s not accepted.
“We shouldn’t have young people who feel they’re being bullied or being threatened just because they’re being an official at a junior game of football somewhere, it shouldn’t happen.”
The report comes just weeks after the AFL and its umpires were slammed for the crackdown on dissent from players, which resulted in numerous 50-metre penalties across Round 5.
Watson believes that attitudes towards umpiring - both at community and AFL level - have to change.
“We all have a role to play in this, the umpiring stuff, the respect aspect at the junior level to educate kids. I think it has to be stronger, and it’s got to start in the home too,” he said.
“If you’re engaging your children in AFL football, one of the things you should be teaching them along the skills of the game is respect for umpiring.
“I think we’ve allowed that to deteriorate over time and we’ve now allowed that to be culturally acceptable that that’s the way you behave around umpiring.
“It has to change, that’s where it’s got to change.”
The AFL brought in the changes to the dissent rule in the hope it would encourage more people to get into community-level umpiring, CEO Gillon McLachlan admitting “it got away from us”.
The game is 6000 umpires short nationally. After some settling period at the AFL level, dissent free kicks have featured less over the past two weeks to suggest that players can adapt.
Watson went on to say that if players can adapt, then so can fans with their views on umpires.
“You (Breakfast co-host Garry Lyon) and I both support what the AFL has done in terms of dissent,” he continued.
“We’ve seen a change, we’ve a seen a massive change because the rule has stated you’ll get a 50-metre penalty if you show dissent, so players can adapt their behaviours and we can all adapt our behavioural change as part of this and we need to do it.
“At coaching level, at junior level, at parent level, all that type of behaviour has to change, we have to stop blaming umpires, we’ve got to stop smashing umpires because our kids are seeing that and then as they grow up they believe that is acceptable behaviour.
“And we’ve allowed it to be acceptable behaviour and it shouldn’t be.
“I know I’m going back a long way (but) when I was a kid that was drummed into us. If we ever backchatted an umpire when I played football junior level at any stage of my junior career, we would have been taken from the field.
“It was unacceptable, you grew up not believing that that was okay to behave like that.
“Over time our standards have dropped in regard to this and now it’s become acceptable that that’s what you do, you dispute umpire decisions.
“If you think people can’t change just take a look and notice of what’s taken place at the AFL this season with dissent.
“(For the players), we were told, ‘Oh no, it’s emotion, they’re going to react a certain way, they’re not going to modify their behaviours’, well they can!”
In response to the Herald Sun article, the AFL stated they are “committed to ensuring that football at every level of the game provides an environment that is safe, welcoming and inclusive and where women and girls have equal opportunity and equal access to facilities”.
The league’s statement also said their Women and Girls Game Development Action Plan was nearing completion and would benefit females in the game through “specific interventions”.