First Division - Eastern Football League

THE EASTERN FOOTBALLER
UMPIRES CORNER
ALL-YEAR-ROUND UMPIRE
Celebrating his 1300th game in umpiring last week was
Martien Pruysers. Martien began his umpiring career 45
years ago running the boundary for Gembrook Football
Club Seniors for 4 years. He also played 224 games for
Gembrook extending over 14 years.
Martien began umpiring for the then
Eastern Districts Football League
Umpires Association in 1978 as a
field umpire in the Under 16’s
competition. At the time Martien was
also umpiring for the Dandenong
Juniors. The following year, Martien
gave up umpiring for Dandenong
and began umpiring for Knox Junior
Football League where he umpired a modest 300 games.
Among the many milestones of Martien’s umpiring
career are several Grand Finals including the Division 2
Grand Final and many Reserves Grand Finals.
In 1993 Martien was awarded Life Membership of the
Eastern Football League Umpires Association, an award
recognising his commitment to umpiring over the years.
Martien was involved in the Royal Children’s Hospital
Good Friday Run to the City in order to raise money for
the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Some fond memories Martien has of umpiring was a
Reserves Grand Final at Boronia Reserve where the game
1 Andrew Wheeler
2 David Blom
3 Bart Maaskant
4 Warren Hillier
5 Alasdair Gall
6 Jason Newman
7 Graeme Vear
8 Jason Hermann
9 Bruce Onken
10 Graham Coutts
11 Clinton Kingma
12 Andrew Tong
13 Phil Hermann
14 Marc Lawson
15 Michael Falzon
was played in 6 inches of mud. Now that’s football!
Another was the Reserves Grand Final between
Nunawading and Southern Cobras. “We had 14 reports
made out by the 6 umpires, there was a total of 99 weeks
suspension. All the players pleaded guilty and we all shook
hands as we walked out of the tribunal.”
45 years involvement in umpiring is a fantastic effort for
anyone and when asked what has kept him involved for so
long “the love of the game, the love of the people and the
respect you get from the community”
Martien’s family has supported him through his 45 years of
umpiring. Martien can’t get enough of umpiring during the
football season as he also umpires Cricket in the summer
months for Ringwood District Cricket Association.
Martien has umpired many top grade Grand Finals in his
20 years of cricket umpiring spending 4 years as Secretary
of the Ringwood District Cricket Association.
The Eastern Football League is proud to recognise
Martien’s commitment to
umpiring over the 27
years he has umpired with
us and congratulate him
on such an outstanding
milestone.
By Holly Anderson
UMPIRES NUMBERS 2005
16 Darren Robertson
17 Arthur McCarthy
18 Richard Davies
19 Steve Marsden
20 Michael Newman
21 Tim O’Meara
22 Adam Pottenger
23 Hayden Surrao
24 Gavin Dore
25 Ray McInerney
26 Ben Hardman
27 Gary Galvin
28 Rob Fennessy
29 Paul Jones
30 Chris Stevens
35
UMPIRES PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
Trophy Town - No. 1 for Trophies, Engraving,
Presentations and Giftware.
1A Trade Way, Eastern Trade Centre
Corner Colchester & Canterbury Roads
Kilsyth 3137 Phone 9720-6399
31 David Spicer
32 Bernie Mills
33 Cody Geddes
34 David Cameron
35 Russell O’Toole
36 Robert Tactor
37 Ian Doutch
38 Rhys Doughty-Cowell
39 Evan Maudsley
40 Maurice De Vincentis
41 Nick McDonald
42 Matt Wilkie
43 Steve Petrie
44 Brad Hogan
45 Paul Walker
UMPIRE MILESTONES
THIS WEEK
Glen Cooper 50 games
Jarryd McCormack 50 games
Stephen Sarris 50 games
Ryan Baxter 100 games
Ken Broomhead 200 games
200 Mount Dandenong Road Croydon
Phone 9723-9005
46 Phil Wainwright
47 David Scollary
48 Stephen O’Donohue
49 Andrew U’Ren
50 Ken Lloyd
51 Graham Templar
52 Jamie Beattie
53 Nick Court
54 Ben Cutler
55 Steven Docherty
56 Steve Ritchie
57 Brad Geraghty
58 Mark Corrie
59 David O’Connell
60