Former St Kilda coach, Scott Watters, joined SEN WA Breakfast to dissect his thoughts on the current state of dissent aimed at umpires through grassroot levels.
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SEN WA Breakfast
Scott Watters' on the Junior Umpiring Pandemic (17/07/2024)
Scottie Waters is our guest, we're talking all things footy on this Wednesday. With something we haven't spoken about to Scottie Cummings and yourself, Scottie, if something was raised on the national broadcast yesterday here in Perth, that the WA Football Commission has asked coaches of junior teams, which are being unpied by 13, 14 and 15-year-olds not to shake hands post-game, because coaches are using that as a forum to shake a young man's hand and make detrimental and abusive remarks to them. And we're losing umpires in the game because they're using that as a way of getting close to the umpire, because you can't approach them. So you all have to shake the hand and say you are useless to the year an idiot. Correct. And now the Football Commission has got to a stage where it's reached boiling point where umpires are now going, we don't want to hear it and we actually fear actually it's someone coming up to us at the end of the game. Thoughts on that and is it a sad indictment on the game that we're, it might not just be a WA. An indictment on parenting and mentor. Yeah, the future umpires of our game right there right now. What do you make of that Scotty? Well, I see it every weekend. I've had my three boys, 19, 17, 15. So I've spent a lot of time with them in recent years as they go through their junior football ranks. And I get on the weekend on Sunday, I'm watching a game of under-15s and I heard one opposition supporter yell out, I'll give you 20 bucks if you're knocking out. Right now that sort of thing unfortunately, that occurs if it's not every week, it's every second week, something like that comes up in a game. So what I what I suggested this before, there are so many players, you know, you look at AFL players, you go through the system. They understand the importance of teamwork, camaraderie, building community, and they're lost to the game. Right. Just to just imagine if the and if the AFL could actually shape community football much more than what they currently do, they give it lip service. They don't support it anywhere near strongly enough as they should because they're always focused on just the elite level product. But by putting a bit more focus onto community football, they could change the narrative and change the conversations that occur, particularly around parents, coaches and umpires. So my suggestion has always been imagine if there was a well, a Scotty Cummins, right? So, you know, going to you're employed by the AFL and every junior footy ground has an AFL, an X AFL player that is there to bring coaches together, bring the parents together, the start of every day, and actually talks to them about, hey guys, we're here today for the kids. You know, this is not about whether they win or lose at 13 or 14 or 15 years of age. This is about creating a great environment where they're safe, supported, and can actually start to live their dreams, not yours as a parent, theirs as a young kid. Now, if we had some people of the york of a Scotty Cummins or a Peter material or whoever, X AFL players, coaches and players and parents would listen. Right? But we don't. We've got uneducated coaches sitting in some of those roles. And in many ways, we've got some uneducated parents that sit around. The kids just want to play and have a great time. We could do a much better job of changing what community football should be. And sadly, you know, if I look at the last eight to 10 years, I've lost a lot of junior free games. I think it's getting worse. And I think it is an issue. And it's one that could be addressed if the AFL was going to say, got their head out of there. But I won't. They need to focus a little bit more on how they can support local level football. They've got so much money, goss, they don't spend it in the right places.