As we near the halfway mark of the season, DDFUA Umpire Manager Daniel Gibbons took pause to assess the season so far.

“I’ve been very pleased with what our umpires have been able to achieve to date and how well our young umpires have been developing,” he said.

With a young umpiring group, development is the key word at the DDFUA in 2011.

“We have blooded ten first-year umpires so far this season with more umpires to be given their debut games in the coming weeks. By this weekend we will have also introduced eight new umpires into 13s and 14s football at some point this season,” said Gibbons.

The DDFUA’s Development Squad program has also grown from strength-to-strength with a solid core of umpires from last season continuing in that program.

A dozen of the more experienced young umpires are also participating in the umpire accreditation program, which is targeted at umpires commencing umpiring 13s and 14s.

“To have 12 umpires undertaking accreditation is very pleasing and is a great opportunity to build their knowledge and skills. We have now put three years work into these umpires and they are developing very quickly. I expect these umpires to umpire finals and grand finals in the very near future,” said Gibbons.

The big challenge facing the DDFUA is nurturing the large number of young umpires into higher grades of football and retaining them in seasons to come.

“What we have now is a very young group of umpires who are gaining experience every week. We have put a lot of hard work into developing these umpires over the last two seasons and we will reap the rewards of that in seasons to come”, Gibbons stated.