AFL Umpring Rules Update - Dean Margetts (23.06.2026)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
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**SPEAKER_3** (0:56)
This is part of a broader conversation. We have a professional sport that's got nine games, and we only played seven on the weekend.
I don't think we have enough professionally competent umpires to man these games at the moment with the four umpire system. So I think the game's got a real issue here, and it should lead to a tabling of a serious conversation around going back to three umpires. I'd be running them through other leagues. I refuse to accept that there's only 40 umpires across the entire country who are capable of officiating in an AFL game.

**Mark Duffield** (1:29)
Gerard Whately, talking tough on umpires. I don't like some of the language there. Professionally competent?
I don't know. I don't think that's a particularly fair term when it comes to umpires officiating in AFL games. I guess the question is, are there some mistakes being made that could we avoid? Will we get a higher standard of umpiring if we went back to three? Let's talk to Dean Margetts, former veteran AFL umpire, and get his thoughts on the matter. Dean, welcome.

**Dean Margetts** (2:01)
Good morning, Mark. Nice to be part of the show once again.

**Mark Duffield** (2:04)
Mate, what did you make of what Gerard said? I didn't like the term professionally competent. To me, that's kind of pretty insulting and disrespectful. But do we have a problem with the four umpire system?

**Dean Margetts** (2:20)
Well, yeah, I think we do. And I'll say on record, ever since the four umpire system came into vogue, that I thought three umpires was probably the right metric for our game. Now, obviously, AFL, I don't think we'll backtrack from that. In reference to Gerard Whately's comment about professional competency, I think we need to go back and understand our umpiring list is no different to a club. At the moment, we're probably in a bit of a rebuilding phase. We've got our top umpires who we know when we respect and understand how they're going to perform really consistently week in, week out. We've got our mid-tier umpires, that 100% Toronto Gaians who are reasonably consistent. Then we've got a group of umpires who, they're competent, but they're still learning their craft at AFL level.
I want to just refer back to the Jake Waterman missed shot on goal, Mark, if you can just indulge you for a second. Now, when Jake missed that, everyone was like, oh, he's just going through the yips and we sort of support him.
We all just sort of said we want to wrap our arms around him and be there for him, which is great. And that's what we want. But if that was an umpiring decision, which was a glaring holding the ball mistake and error, would we afford the umpire the same sort of attitude? I don't think we would. Now, what I'm saying there is the umpire goes out to the best job he can and the way the same way Jake Waterman goes to kick the best that he can. But sometimes we're just going to make mistakes. And as umpires, we go through form lapses as well, Mark, where our confidence is not there. And that situation where we saw with the Gerard Whately, the missed mark off the back and then the hold in the ball, that umpire, and speaking from experience, would have been saying to himself, oh my God, I've just stuffed up that mark. And then without even parsing that and going to the next act of play, he's still probably not quite processed that. And then he goes and makes another mistake. And that's not what we want, but that's a learning thing. And he'll be coached on that. So we're just going to understand that umpire is going to go through ups and downs. Mistakes can be made. I don't think the comment about the competencies is probably fair.