Charlie Hynes loves the sport of football so he decided that playing wasn’t enough.
The teenager, who plays for Diggers Rest, joined the Riddell Umpires as a way to make some money, but be involved even more with the sport.
“I wanted to do it before COVID started, he said. “I wanted to get a bit fitter and earn a bit of extra pocket money. I’m having fun.
“Once you do I mates join. Once you get games with them, have fun running around together. Footy is a sport I love. I love playing and I love umpiring.”
Hynes is a boundary umpire on Saturdays for senior matches, before he is a field umpire on Sundays for under-11 matches.
He then has about an hour break before running out on the field for the Burras. He said come Sunday afternoon, he’s pretty sore.
Hynes said he likes being a boundary umpire more because he is better at it. He said he’s now used to umpiring the senior competition.
“At the start I was nervous,” he said. “I now know most of the players and they’re just there playing for fun and I’m out there for fun as well.”
Hynes is one of a number of players who are either playing and umpiring. There’s many who take up umpiring once their playing days are over.
With the 2023 season fast approaching, the Riddell Umpires are after more umpires for this season.
Riddell Umpires president Addam Icely said umpiring is a really rewarding way to stay involved in the sport.
“If new umpires come along, they improve their fitness, they make new friends, they engage with football players on the ground,” he said.
“The best thing about it all, for a young kid especially, is that they can make a little bit of money on the side by doing it.”
“You can, as a family unit, do something together with your mum and dad, with your brother or sister, it’s a family environment we’re trying to provide,”
“You make a lot of new friends out of it and you get a good, rewarding life experience.”
Icely said it doesn’t matter what age you are, that you can get involved.
“There are umpires, young and slightly older, who have transitioned across to umpiring to stay involved in the game.
The experience is rewarding and the respect that comes from the current crop with being a former player now umpiring is there to see.”
Hynes’ advice for anyone who is thinking about umpiring while still playing is to get involved.
“I think if you want to do both, it is really good,” he said.
