Milestones 29 June 2008
U15 Div 2 Mitchell Tyas-Empsall 100 games
U14 Div 3 Sam King 50 games

Well done boys!

Results for 29 June 2008
Click here for this week's results

Trivia Night
The 2008 Paul’s-McKinnon JFC Trivia Night will be on will be on Friday July 18.
Please arrive at 7 and proceedings will begin at 7:30pm.
Our esteemed MC will be Darren Blenkinsop.
Tickets $15. Drinks at bar prices.
Book your seats early to avoid disappointment.
Tickets available from Maggie Dawes 9579-4610 or 0418-745-098 or at the clubrooms on a Sunday from 4pm.

Click here for the Trivia Night flyer.

Newsletter Number 11
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Fixture for 29 June 2008
Click here for this week's fixture

Drinks and BBQ at the Clubrooms
Every Sunday Night
 The clubrooms are open every Sunday night during the season from 4.30pm.
All the scores are read out and you can have a chat about the day's games over a drink.
A sausage sizzle will be running as well
All players, parents, supporters and officials are welcome - so come on down!
PS - If you have lost footy gear, lost property will be at the clubrooms on Sunday nights
 

An Important Message About Umpires and You
All junior football leagues struggle to recruit and hold on to good umpires.  Like our junior players & officials, umpires learn their skills in junior leagues and will make more mistakes than the umpires we see on TV.  Although, we even see plenty of questionable decisions being made week after week in the AFL! 

High numbers of emerging umpires resign because they are sick of being abused or intimidated by players or adult supporters.  The irony is that as umpires with a little bit of experience leave, they lose the chance to learn and improve – and their vacancy is taken up by brand new umpires with no experience.   So the MSJFL keeps refilling with inexperienced umpires and the overall standard is less likely to improve as quickly.   

As a way of protecting the umpires, the MSJFL is enforcing heavy penalties against players, team officials and supporters who abuse or intimidate umpires. 

Please respect the umpires, even if you don’t agree with their decisions.   They are trying their best.      If you have a complaint, the only person who can direct it to the umpire is your team manager.   An umpire’s performance sheet is also completed by the team manager after each match and sent into the MSJFL.  

Often umpires get unfairly blamed for the result of a match.   In reality there are lots of factors that contribute to the result of a match, such as players’ skills, injuries, wind direction, fatigue and the opposition’s performance.   If a team is good enough to win by 5 or more goals, the umpires’ decisions won’t even come into the equation.  Please don’t use umpires as an excuse for losing a match. We are not playing for sheep stations.  If we focus on our kids’ efforts rather than the score, we’re all less likely to be disappointed.

We all know how much work we put in to our season and how hard the kids work to improve their game and that sometimes these efforts can seem to be spoilt by umpiring mistakes.  Unfortunately, that’s a normal part of virtually every sport.  On the other hand, sometimes the umpires see things that we can’t from the boundary line.  They’re the ones who are brave enough to put their hands up, do their training and have a go, so that our kids can play.   No matter how minor you think your comment may be or no matter what the context is, if it is negative – DON’T SAY IT.  In the bigger picture, it’s not worth it.