Former GV umpire set to hit the coveted 1000 game mark

Opie spent 21 years officiating across five leagues in the wider Goulburn Valley where he racked up the bulk of his games, but is now stationed in Mildura where he will run across the line for his millennium match in the Sunraysia Football League.

The seasoned field umpire will oversee the seniors fixture between Mildura and Ouyen to reach the milestone and, while it will undoubtedly be one for the memory bank, it was the 1986 Kyabram District League (KDL) grand final between Nagambie and Merrigum which first springs to Opie’s mind.

“It was a good game, but I had about five reports,” he said.

“The league best-and-fairest coathangered someone in the first couple of minutes of the game.

“In those days footy was pretty willing, particularly grand finals, but there were no cards or anything, so even though you put people in the book, they stayed on the field.

“That was pretty memorable and that was my first senior grand final.”

Opie would back it up the following year by umpiring the Murray Football League (MFL) big dance between Jerilderie and Deniliquin, spending the next 14 years in the Goulburn Valley League, Picola District Football League, the now-defunct Benalla Tungamah Football League as well as the KDL and MFL.

His two-and-a-bit decade stint in the GV was sandwiched in between two years in Bendigo and 21 in Mildura, meaning Opie knows a thing or two about football and its idiosyncrasies.

“In the 1980s it was pretty stop-start football; (it is) a lot faster nowadays,” he said.

“The players aren’t any better now than they were in the 1980s – I think every generation of footballers and every league has its outstanding footballers.

“But it’s much quicker, and the other interesting thing is that rules were pretty simple – you were either holding the ball or not holding the ball.

“Whereas now there are 20 different variations, so the rules are a lot more complicated, and that means that someone who is starting out, it probably takes longer to get going because there’s so many rules.”

Opie fondly recalls his time in the region, mentioning former Goulburn Valley Football Umpires Association coach Ian Coates had a big influence on the way he goes about his business.

“(Ian) really changed my attitude to umpiring; it was ‘every game you do is the best game you’re going to do that day’,” Opie said.

“He had a really professional attitude to footy and changed the GV umpires to probably the best umpiring association in country Victoria, simply because he kept really high standards.

“It was a case of every game, no matter where it is, no matter what standard it is, is important – and that’s really changed my attitude to umpiring, but it sort of changed my attitude in life as well.

“I’ve been a teacher a long time and every class is an important class.”

It’s safe to say Opie’s teaching background has served him in good stead when it comes to umpiring.

From corralling children in the classroom to holding court on the footy oval, Opie has managed to maintain an air of authority ― one that even AFL footballers can’t help but get sucked into.

“Matt Dea that played at Richmond and Essendon, he’s just come back to coach Imperials and I umpired them a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

“I went in the rooms and he came up to me with a big smile and said ‘now do I have to call you Mr Opie?’.

“I told him the Year 9 kids that I umpire think they can call me Phil, I think you can do the same.

“That’s probably the great thing I’ve enjoyed about umpiring over the years is that 99 per cent of players and the crowd are really warm and welcoming, and then we just have one per cent that perhaps need to have a good hard look at themselves.”

Opie was able to pick his clique of mediators and chosen fixture for the 1000th, a luxury not often afforded to umpires.

But when asked what was next, you’d forgive him for wanting to kick the feet up after chalking up four figures.

“Somebody said to me ‘are you going to retire after 1000?’, and I jokingly said ‘I can probably get another 200 games up, but that will be another 10 years’, but the likelihood of that is next to nil.”