By Russell Bennett
On Saturday, Emerald’s Warwick Marsh umpired his 600th game of footy – an astonishing feat by any measure.
Only, as Warwick estimates, the actual number would be much closer to 1000 games, which is simply astonishing.
“You’d probably need to add another 400 to 500 games of juniors on top of that because the records don’t go that far back,” the 42-year-old told the Gazette on Sunday morning, just before mentoring one of today’s current crop of up-and-coming umpires in a junior contest.
Marsh has been umpiring football for 26 years, starting from when he was 16. He’s been a senior umpire for more than a decade.
He left the Emerald footy club in the mid-1990s to play at Coldstream and, later, Lilydale – including captaining the latter’s seconds for two years in the Eastern Football League’s first division.
But a rising injury toll, combined with what was still an undying love of the game, pushed him into umpiring.
“Umpiring (juniors) on the Sundays is probably the best part now,” he said.
“You might umpire some under-9s or under-10s and they just want to play footy. It’s really enjoyable.
“You just see the excitement when their grandparents come and watch and they get two or three kicks and a mark, and then they go home and probably re-enact it at school the next day.”
Marsh has umpired senior finals in the AFL Yarra Ranges competition for the past four years, including grand finals in the past two. He says those are among his highlights, along with umpiring the likes of Gary Moorcroft, David Wirrpanda, Michael Firrito, Rory Sloane and Kade Simpson over his journey to date.
But umpiring alongside his dad, Keith, and umpiring games his younger brother Clinton played in – those moments are truly special.
Keith got Warwick into umpiring in the first place. He turns 75 in July and has umpired for 45 years and is still going strong.
And now Warwick is mentoring young umpires in his own right, and has his own way of getting them on-side.
“I’m known for my double-coated Tim Tam biscuits,” he said with a laugh.
“I bring a couple of packets of those along and the boys fight to umpire in my games.
“We just have a bit of fun – enjoying it is the key.”
