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The AFL would like a female field umpire to be officiating at top-level matches within a decade.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the league wanted women to progress to field umpiring “as soon as possible”, following in the footsteps of experienced goal umpire Chelsea Roffey, who was the emergency official for the 2010 grand final.
“I would love to see a female field umpire come through the ranks and there’s a couple of very promising female field umpires at state league and community level,” Anderson said on Tuesday.
Umpires boss Jeff Gieschen said the education of female goal, boundary and field umpires was already well advanced across Australia.
“Each state has their own female umpiring academy,” Gieschen said.
“At country, community and metropolitan level, we’ve got lots of young females coming through.
“We’ve seen programs where, on occasions, we’ve had senior games of football officiated by all female umpires – field, goal and boundary.
“When you see that happening in the last couple of years, you know it’s only a matter of time before one of those progresses up through the ranks.”
Gieschen said that within the next decade, there could be a woman controlling premiership matches.
Meanwhile, former Carlton and Essendon player Jordan Bannister has been promoted to the senior AFL umpiring list for this season.
Bannister, who played 67 games for Essendon and Carlton from 2001-09, won his place as one of six new umpires after the pre-season trial period for rookie umpires through the NAB Cup.
Bannister encouraged other ex-AFL and local players to consider umpiring.
“Just give it a go,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect but I’ve loved every minute.”
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