For Sunday’s Goulburn Valley League senior football decider between Echuca and Shepparton, a youthful boundary crew includes two grand final debutants in Aiden Maksacheff and Angus Shanahan, who’ll be joined by Adam Napier and Isaac Chandler.
Veterans Barry McCrae and Charlie Zampaglione will man the big sticks while James Meek, Andrew Moore and Jack Norris have been named as field umpires.
It’ll be a first for Norris, who is getting his just rewards after paying his dues for the past decade.
“It was back in 2014 when I first joined the GVFUA,” Norris said.
“Mum stumbled across a Facebook post that was advertising recruitment of umpires for the association.
“But even before then, I always aspired to become an umpire, particularly when I was at primary school.
“One of my former principals at the time was an umpire with the GVFUA and that sort of just led to an aspiration. I guess from there, the rest is history.”
Norris began as a boundary umpire with the GVFUA, patrolling the paint for two years before transitioning to his post in the field.
That’s where he’s stayed for the past eight years.
And with a full decade of umpiring beneath his belt, Norris’ big break almost doubled up with game 200.
Sunday’s GVL grand final will take him to 197, and although it’s his first in the big leagues, it’s not his first rodeo.
Norris has ran the field in Kyabram District League and Murray Football League grand finals, interleague matches and V/Line Cup carnivals, and he’s expecting Sunday to be an even bigger occasion.
He cited “having the best seat in the house” as one of his favourite parts of umpiring, in tandem with the decision-making aspect of the role, and now he’ll get to do both in the region’s premier date on the football calendar.
“It’s an absolute honour to be able to umpire my first senior Goulburn Valley League grand final,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of hard work in the years leading up to this, but there’s a lot of people in the association that I do have to thank for this appointment.
“There’s been a lot of senior umpires when I first started as a field umpire that took me under their wings, lent their expertise and their knowledge and mentored me through the ranks.
“I can’t be more thankful for them.”
