THE AFL wishes to advise the weekend of round eight in the 2016 Toyota AFL Premiership Season has been designated to celebrate community umpiring with the aim to encourage people to get involved in umpiring Australian Football at the grassroots level.

Umpires at each AFL match this weekend will be led on to the ground by four first-year community umpires, giving them a taste of the elite match day experience and demonstrating the opportunities that are available through umpiring.

AFL national umpiring development manager Adam Davis said umpiring numbers have had incredible growth over the last 12 months with a 15 percent increase, but we always need more umpires to cover the growing numbers of games played every weekend.

"The celebration of community umpiring this weekend is about recognising all the umpires who do such a great job at community level to allow our game to be as great as it is," he said.

"Umpiring is a critical part of the game to allow the players to play our spectacular game on a level and safe playing field.

"Umpiring offers opportunities for people from all backgrounds and all ages. We offer programs to introduce umpiring to people from multicultural and indigenous backgrounds as well as female umpires," he said.

Celebrations will also occur at matches across this weekend at grassroots and community level around Australia.

OPSM is the official sponsor of the AFL Umpires, supporting community development and the umpire talent pathway at grassroots levels.

More information is available at afl.com.au/umpires. This site includes information on how to become an umpire along with resources to assist learning the role of the umpire.