Umpire in a league of his own in GNFL

When Murray Stevens steps out onto the Recreation Ground tomorrow afternoon, he will be breaking a GNFL record.

The 64-year-old field umpire, who has officiated at least one game for 28 consecutive seasons (another record), will be taking charge of his 266th GNFL league match and in the process is set to pass the mark established by Bruce McVee.

A semi-retired relief teacher at Geraldton Senior College, Stevens initially began umpiring back in 1985 when students of his were complaining about the standard of umpiring over the weekend.

“I went and did a few games and thought ‘this wasn’t too bad’, and that’s how I started,” he said

Stevens achieved his goal of umpiring a league game on July 7 of that year and from there it progressed to wanting to umpire in a final.

Stevens has umpired 19 GNFL finals games, including six grand finals, and also been to numerous Landmark Country Football Championships where he was also selected to officiate in finals.

Indeed, one of his most treasured memories is taking charge of the 1993 decider between the GNFL and the South Western League – a game which the GNFL won.

Stevens was also remarkable insofar as he took it upon himself to break down barriers between players and umpires.

During his role as an umpire’s advisor in the early 90s, members of his fraternity admitted they did not want to officiate certain games or clubs.

One of those teams back then was Mullewa, and so one night Stevens drove out there to join in one of their training sessions, something he said helped improve relations and mutual respect.

“One of the players said ‘we’re going to take you out’ at training because we were doing a bit of a scratch match,” he said.

“He was just joking, but I said ‘that’s OK, you won’t get a kick on Sunday anyhow’, and so you have a bit of a laugh and break down barriers.”

It is that rapport which Stevens said is most important for an umpire to cultivate and maintain if they are to be successful.

“Less whistle more voice is what I always say at training,”

“If you can talk to the players a lot rather than use your whistle to control I think it makes a better umpire.”

After nearly 30 years of umpiring, it’s likely Stevens knows what he talking about.