'Can be a real advantage': Why milestone umpire is thriving in modern game

The Mortlake-based local sporting identity, who is a member of the Western District Football Umpires Association, will celebrate a key milestone in his promising career on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

The 51-year-old, a past footballer for Mortlake and champion local cricketer, will umpire his 150^th match when Port Fairy hosts Cobden at Gardens Oval in the Hampden league, seven years since first picking up the whistle as a way to "stay fit".

"I don't take much notice of it to be honest, I just enjoy umpiring and running around," he said of his upcoming milestone.

"If you hang around long enough milestones do pop up, I just really like running around and staying involved."

Blacker - who was named the 2023 Hampden league umpire of the year and was a field umpire in the 2023 senior football grand final between South Warrnambool and North Warrnambool Eagles - said officiating was the perfect way to stay connected to the game.

"I just wanted to stay fit more than anything. Being a past player at Mortlake and a few other places, then going on to coaching a bit at Allansford, I probably just didn't want to have the involvement of club land, the demand of it any longer," he said.

"With the benefit of hindsight I probably regretted finishing up playing footy as early as I did so it's my way to stay involved, keep fit and the opportunity arose for me.

"To be honest, I was happy to just run around in the Mininera league but it's managed to progress for me."

Blacker said he enjoyed helping emerging umpires coming through the ranks but believed trying to encourage ex-players to stay involved was a way to boost numbers and the standard across the board.

"It's a really easy transition I believe, you have that knowledge as an ex-player, knowing where to run, the patterns and the decision making," he said.

"It can be a real advantage and in the country competitions we certainly need a lot more of my type of ex-player transitioning into umpiring.

"We need two streams of umpiring recruiting, we need the juniors coming through the ranks who might eventually make it to the highest level.

"But we need people like myself coming through my pathway to fill the gaps around here. We have quite a few in the Western District who have come through that basis and I think it's made it easy from my point of view."