Steve’s Stats

4/03/2026

The Roundup

64 Umpires got the season 2026 season underway on Saturday with the Hostplus SANFL Under 14 Boys and the all new AAMI Talent League Under 18 Girls competitions kicking off another big year.

The SANFL Umpire Development Program began on 4 February, with ## Field, Boundary & Goal Umpires from SANFL Juniors, Combined Southern, Barossa Light & Gawler, and Adelaide Footy Community Leagues invited to join the State League program, training with, and provided coaching and mentoring with State League Umpire Coaches and Umpires.

Of those, 37 Umpires officiated in their first ever SANFL Match! Congratulations to the entire Development Program Umpiring team on the past 5 weeks, with more debuts due in the coming weeks.

We also congratulate 10 Umpires who are running in the program to start the season, however have been elevated to State League & Pathway contracts for Season 2026!

For the 8 games on Saturday, we still had 1780 matches of SANFL experience out on the park last weekend. Can anyone guess who had the most..........

Stat Bites:

Andre Jumpponen-Clark officiated his 8th game at Richmond (most ground), and 30th Saturday game out of 35 matches to date (most days).

Josh Abbott Field umpires his 19th game at Noarlunga (most ground).

After 129 games as a Boundary Umpire, Justen Kern has turned his hand to Goal Umpiring, officiating in his first game behind the posts at Elizabeth.

Steven Paunovic is back for season 2026 (who would have thought), and in the process, brought up a century on Saturday at The Parade, umpiring Norwood for the 100th time across all grades.

Milestones

Hostplus SANFL Under 14 Boys Debut

Field: 

Amber Cain, Angus Bullen, Daniel Ballantyne, Dylan Franklin, Harrison Crispin, James Konopka, Logan Burckhardt, Zanen Syrokos, and Zoe Hatchard

Boundary: 

Bailey Patterson, Jacob Burton, Josh Reed, Kyle Watson, Lucas Elliott, Ryan Ng, Zac James

Goal: 

Emmanuella Egwim, Jacob Ferguson, Justen Kern, Luca Caprioli, Mia Borrello, Nate Davies

All AAMI Talent League Under 18 Girls matches were the first ever - all Debuts

Field: 

Christian Cawley, James Hindle, Jayden MacDonald, Nathan Nigro, Riley Dunn, Rosie Lioulios, Sam Aesche, Tom Spry, Tyler Clayton, and Tyler Crowhurst

Boundary: 

Alexis Thiele, Asher Harten, Elijah Rogers, Frankie Lewis, Harry Kelly, Jayden Sims-McLaren, Liam Wilson, Paige Walding, and Sam Waters

Goal:

Nick Cameron-Lindsay

And don't forget, a big thank you to our State League Umpires hopping in to support the Program with some of their own debuts:

Hostplus SANFL Under 14 Boys Debut

Field: Josh Abbott

Boundary: Andre Jumponnen-Clark

Goal: Tom Mayo

AAMI Talent League Under 18 Girls Debut

Field: 

Ollie Hopkins, and Riley MacDonald

Boundary:

Leo Walkley, Lincoln Manning, and Louis Annetta

Goal:

Brody Hancock, David Cunningham, Jared Murton, Justin Thai, Patrick Backshall, and Stewart Whiteaker

Thanks everyone, see you at the Footy.