Scrutiny, screaming, and the best seat in the house: Chelsea Roffey’s football life

Chelsea Roffey can still hear the sound of West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui exhaling with effort as he touched the ball on the goal line, and feel the anticipation when. She waved the flag for Jimmy Bartel’s match-winning point after the siren against Hawthorn in 2009, and Dustin Martin’s first goal in 2010.Roffey will goal umpire her 300th AFL match on Saturday.

“There was that element to handle being recognisable, having my name mentioned by commentary teams or over the fence from cheer squads.”“You just feel the pressure … like you’re going out there almost as a cheerleader for your gender … I probably would look back and tell my younger self just to let that go.“I think I’ve always just seen my responsibility as maintaining integrity first and foremost as an umpire, and then outside of that embracing the fact that I’m in a unique position.

Roffey said umpiring “stretches you”, with lessons in how to manage emotions in the moment, bouncing back from adversity, and shutting out outside noise. “And they’re looking at everything from your body position to how you’ve reacted to the play and how you’ve communicated ... everything gets looked at.”

“Things have changed a great deal and the AFL is very conscious of making sure that female umpires are catered for ... It’s those seemingly trivial little things or perhaps the things that just get overlooked that actually make a big difference to the culture and someone’s sense of belonging,” said Roffey.

This season there is heightened attention on goal umpires, after the AFL instructed them to lower the threshold for score reviews, leading fans and commentators to express frustration at the number of reviews.

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