Monk said he understood the important role umpires played in Hampden league football but had noticed inconsistencies this season.

Speaking constructively, the non-playing coach said watching regular game film and identifying correct and incorrect calls and discussing how they were decided on would benefit all umpires.

“Why don’t they pay someone to video their games?” Monk said.

“I reckon if they watch the tape — ‘yep, that’s great and that one wasn’t’ and they are all watching it together it’ll add consistency.

“It is an idea which could be looked at.”

Monk said it could be used as a “mass education” tool, similar to how coaches develop their skills and knowledge.

“I think what they should be doing as a group is try to learn and educate themselves,” he said.

“All we want is consistency.”

Warrnambool and District Football Umpires Association director of umpiring Arno Pennings said time constraints, finances and availability of game day film meant it was too hard to have regular access to footage.

Pennings said he was happy to look at footage at clubs’ request if they had any questions about particular decisions.

He also watched the entire Port Fairy-North Warrnambool game tape after a controversial call late in the close contest gave the Seagulls a shot at goal.

“I spent three-and-a-half hours going through the (Seagulls-Eagles) tape and to do that on a weekly basis would be time-consuming and when you don’t have the resources, it comes down to dollars it costs to get it every week and it’s an expensive thing to do for the association,” Pennings said.

But Pennings said he found the thorough review of the Seagulls-Eagles’ round seven contest to be beneficial.

“I got a number of notes from it,” he said.

“I could see different things in that game that highlighted trends I have seen occurring the last couple of weeks in our umpiring so at the next coaching session we’ll address those.

“What we are trying to do is to get our umpires consistent.

“The other thing is we have three umpiring bodies in the Hampden league.

“To try and get consistency between the three bodies is a work in progress.”

WDUA shares HFNL matches with Colac and District and Hamilton and District umpires each week.

He said neither of those associations had regular access to film footage. 

justine.mc@fairfaxmedia.com.au