Roberts to notch 100th game
By Alison Zell
Canberra’s own Luke Roberts will notch his 100th game as a boundary umpire when he takes the line for the Giants’ clash against Melbourne at Manuka Oval this Saturday.
Roberts, a nurse in the intensive care unit at The Canberra Hospital, officiated his first VFL game as an 18-year-old before taking a break for 20 years and only returning to the dicipline a few years ago.
“I started when I was a teenager in the ‘80s because a couple of mates I played footy with were boundary umpiring to earn some pocket money,” Roberts said.
“I went along and gave it a try and when it became too much to both play and umpire, I chose umpiring because I was earning money from that.
“I umpired four VFL games but due to circumstances with shift work, study and a young family, I made the decision to give it away.”
After a year overseas in 2002, Roberts was back in Canberra and, with his kids now older, he was looking for something to fill his weekends.
“I started back locally and spent a few years umpiring in Canberra, including some senior Grand Finals,” Roberts said.
“After that I wrote a letter to (AFL umpires’ manager) Jeff Geischen basically asking If he would consider putting me back on the list.”
Geischen was in Canberra to watch a trial for another goal umpire when he asked Roberts to do the 10km trial too. Geischen was impressed enough to give Roberts a practice match in Sydney the following year and then offered Roberts a contract.
As there were only games in Sydney or Canberra every few weeks, at first it was a slow progression to 100 games. But a shortage of boundary umpires in 2010 meant Roberts was then asked to travel to officiate interstate matches.
“If you were fit and performing well enough, you basically got a game every weekend because of the shortage of umpires,” Roberts said.
“We ended up travelling to Melbourne or Queensland pretty much every weekend we weren’t needed in Sydney or Canberra.
“The last few years I’ve basically umpired every weekend.”
Roberts umpired his first finals series last year and names running the boundary of the Essendon vs. Carlton clash as the highlight of his career so far.
“Finals footy is the ultimate goal of every umpire out there doing their job and umpiring in front of 90-thousand people at the MCG last year was a terrific thrill,” he said.
After giving umpiring away, Roberts never thought he would reach the 100-game milestone and is hoping he can continue for as long as he can stay fit.
“Reaching 100 games is certainly a really important achievement,” he said.
“It’s a dream come true and I don’t think I’ll make another 100 games but I’ll keep going as long as my body holds up.”
UMPIRE PROFILE – Luke Roberts
Discipline: Boundary
AFLUA Heritage No: 402
AFL Matches: 99
1st AFL Match: 1988
Honours: Interstate Match (ACT v QLD) 2006 AFL Canberra Grand Finals 2004, 2005, 2006 ACTAFL Grand Final 1987, Will achieve 100 match milestone in 2012
Commenced career with: ACTAFL in 1985
Occupation: Registered Nurse
