Mark Greene AFL Grand Final Umpires
Being an AFL umpire can be a thankless task. They are asked to officiate one of the most complex games in the world, one with a myriad of changes to rules and interpretations on a year-to-year and even week-to-week basis, and face enormous scrutiny from fans and media alike. On Grand Final Day, that scrutiny is amplified tenfold, but the umpires on the field on footy’s biggest day are there for a reason – they are pretty damn good at what they do. The following are some of the best AFL Grand Final umpires in the game’s history.
Matt Stevic
Matt Stevic has carved out an impressive career as an AFL umpire. Regularly cited as one of the best by the players themselves, he has been rewarded for his performance with eight AFL Grand Final appearances since his debut in 2004. Interestingly, it wasn’t until 2012 that he umpired his first Grand Final, and after missing out in 2013 he has umpired seven in a row since. He has become a staple of the last day in September, and at just 41 years of age seems destined to umpire plenty more. With just three umpires making the cut for footy’s grandest stage, the fact that he has been there for seven consecutive years and eight of the last nine suggests that he is unequivocally the best modern-day umpire in the business.
Brett Rosebury
Right up there with him is Brett Rosebury, who has been incurring the wrath of one-eyed fans since way back in 2000 and has umpired a whopping 447 games in total along the journey. Among those 447 games are eight Grand Finals, and he’s seen plenty of close ones – he was there when Dom Sheed booted the winner against Collingwood in 2018, for the Swans’ win over the Hawks in 2012, and in both of the Grand Finals in 2010, when Collingwood drew with St. Kilda before blowing them out in the replay. He’s missed out the last couple of years after making the cut in 2018, but nonetheless he’s carved out a terrific career at the top level.
Ian Robinson
One from a bygone era, Ian Robinson was as good an umpire as there was throughout the course of the ‘70s and ‘80s. He umpired 353 games during his 17-season career, which was the most in history until 1995. In that time he umpired nine Grand Finals across eight different years – like Rosebury, he was in charge for both games when the Pies and Kangaroos drew in 1977. Amazingly, his career spanned a time in which there was initially only one umpire, and only two by his career’s end, making it that much harder to accumulate as many Grand Final appearances as he did.
Umpires often don’t get the credit they deserve, and the difficulty and pressure associated with officiating Australian Rules Football at any level, let alone the top, isn’t easy to empathise with. Add 100,000 screaming fans on Grand Final Day, and it’s a seriously tough gig – notwithstanding the fact that AFL umpire salaries are far better than what they once were. The above three umpires have consistently been selected among the best in the game and given the most important jobs as a result, and both their continued selection for the Grand Final and their performances on that day have ensured they are all icons within the umpiring fraternity.
