BRENT Wallace will complete his rise to the top ranks of umpiring when he makes his debut at AFL level in Sunday's clash between St Kilda and Melbourne.
The 23-year-old son of triple premiership-winning Hawk and former Bulldogs and Tigers coach Terry Wallace has been climbing through the umpiring ranks since 2012 after ending a promising playing career.
Umpires coach Hayden Kennedy cheekily broke the news to an unsuspecting Terry Wallace on air during Crocmedia's AFL Live coverage on Monday.
Terry spoke of watching Brent umpire on Saturday in the VFL at Whitten Oval and said to Kennedy that he had no idea how to adjudicate an umpire's performance.
"Well, you better get used to it because he might be in this week," Kennedy added.
When signing off he said: "Well done, Terry, congratulations."
A clearly surprised Wallace was over the moon.
"I went down to the Whitten Oval to have a look and I thought it was the worst possible game to play or umpire in," he said.
"It was a typical Whitten Oval day, blowing a howling gale and I sat there and thought, 'What am I doing here?'"
"I knew he was close to selection; from the feedback they were giving him he was confident of getting a game in the bye rounds."
"That was where his aims and objectives were but I certainly hadn't heard anything."
Brent Wallace trained with Hawthorn in 2009, and played VFL for the Box Hill Hawks in the two years that followed before taking up an AFL umpiring scholarship.
He began by umpiring in the Eastern Football League, before graduating to the VFL, where he has spent the past two seasons. He also umpired last year's VFL Grand Final between Footscray and his former club, the Box Hill Hawks, before landing a spot on the AFL's senior umpiring list.
Brent's debut on Sunday presents a new challenge for his father, who has spent the past six years working as a member of the Crocmedia and SEN 1116 commentary teams.
"Fortunately enough I'm actually going to be covering that game so that will be a bit of fun," Wallace said.
"It will be interesting because it's my job to call it as I see it, and that's his job too."
