The player’s club declined to comment.

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Under the laws of Australian football, which are included among policies and documents on the YJFL website, a player can be ordered from the field in any competition except for the AFL for the reportable offence of intentionally making contact with or striking an umpire, or attempting to do so.

According to the AFL, there are more than 17,000 registered community umpires across Australia, an increase of 21 per cent on last year. The Yarra Junior Football League said its umpire ranks had doubled from 300 to 600 since last season.

“As the game continues to grow, we need to ensure we’re attracting more people to get involved in umpiring. We’re pleased to see a 32 per cent growth in women and girls’ registrations compared to this time last year, however we need to keep pushing and ensuring once they’re in, we’re supporting our umpires in the best possible way,” the AFL’s executive general manager of game development Rob Auld said last month.

A Victorian mother of a community umpire, Clare O’Neill, said officials can often receive a barrage of abusive comments, intimidating behaviours and personal attacks during games.

“I can think of no other scenario where we collectively accept that it is OK to yell, swear at, and humiliate a young person in front of a crowd. And while he is 17 now, the critical voices have been loud and strong since he switched from playing to umpiring at age 13,” O’Neill wrote for this masthead in 2022.

“What kind of a parent am I to send my child willingly each week to a situation where on a good day there is constant verbal abuse and on a bad one, intimidation?”

Her son submitted a list of the abuse he’d been on the receiving end of while umpiring to his junior league, which sparked an investigation and subsequent tribunal appearance.

In 2022, the AFL cracked down on dissent towards umpires, which it believed trickled down to grassroots umpire treatment.

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At the time, Auld said the AFL’s tougher stance on dissent – which has seen many 50-metre penalties awarded against even mildly demonstrative players – had improved the way umpires had been treated at both junior and senior levels in local football.

“[It] is a noticeable and intentional effort by all involved to show greater respect to our umpires, both association and club-appointed umpires,” Auld said.

“The match-day environment in community footy is the beneficiary of that.”

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