Zak's umpiring goals

by Jack Morgan

A young goal umpire from Warragul has hopes of one day umpiring at the MCG. 

16-year-old Zak Kenny has shown incredible talent at the Gippsland Power Academy, where he was hand-picked to be trained by AFL umpires.

Zak began as a boundary umpire when he was an 11-year-old, and since then has taken the spot in goals at high-stakes games, such as the 2019 EDFL grand final. 

The Warragul Regional College student said it was important to be confident about decisions and to back yourself.

“There’s a lot more pressure when there’s people behind you.

“But you probably get it more from the players than the crowd, trying to argue about ones that are close, but if you just stick with your decision and don’t hesitate they normally aren’t too bad.  But if you show you’re unsure the players will just pounce on you.”

After a trustworthy job at the Ellinbank-Longwarry grand final, Zak was selected for the Gippsland Power Academy. As part of the program, he was given feedback by VFL umpires who observed his games and was trained by the very best.

“It was interesting some of the things that they would say that you didn’t even know you could do to make it even better, so it did help a lot,” Zak said.

To become an umpire at AFL level, Zak was given a list of skills to work on by the umpires.

“Just lots of little things just to make yourself look the best you can, from how sharp your signals are to waving the flags.”

Zak said there had been talks for him to umpire in the VFL, but he wants to wait a year and get his driveng license before doing so. After that, hopefully the MCG.

“It would be a pretty unreal experience because I’ve had groups of people behind me and it would’ve been like 100 people and it was just so loud and then to think how many people would be at an AFL game it would be pretty crazy,” Zak said.