THE TRIAL of umpires working in teams will continue in rounds four and five after the umpiring department hailed its success in the first three rounds.
Under the innovative selection policy field umpires have operated with the same two partners in the first three rounds.
AFL field umpires coach Hayden Kennedy told AFL.com.au he was keen to keep the policy going as it appeared to increase understanding between umpires, which improved their on-field performance.
"The umpiring teams are starting to develop their own terminology to ensure they understand among themselves who has got control [during changeovers] which is really good," Kennedy said.
Kennedy said umpires were also able to lean on each other when it came to bouncing, with umpires supporting each other if one umpire was struggling in that area during a game.
"[We] want to get the best performance out of the team not the individual," Kennedy said.
One of the major reasons for having umpires officiate in teams was to ensure young umpires were able to learn from more experienced umpires.
Most of the teams are made up of three umpires with varying degrees of experience.
Kennedy said the arrangement appeared to be having a positive aspect on umpiring development.
"We are noticing there is a lot of peer coaching or mentoring going on and that is exactly the reason we have [umpiring in teams] happening," Kennedy said.
Kennedy said the only changes made in the first three rounds to teams were injury related but indicated there might be two or three teams changed when selection for round four happens.
He said the umpiring department was aware it needed to guard against the umpires becoming stale with each other but that wasn't an issue at the moment.
