How Colac's netball community is growing its own umpires

A grassroots push across the Colac district is turning a shortage of umpires into a pipeline of new ones. The flow-on is being felt everywhere from Friday night netball to Saturday A Grade. 

The Colac and District Football Netball League (CDFNL), the Colac Night Netball Association (CNNA) and Colac Tigers have combined resources to build a shared pathway for recruiting, testing and mentoring umpires, with a particular focus on getting beginners through their C Badge. The program is free, has no set age minimum, and has already brought umpires into the game as young as 12 to 14. 

A community effort 

The push draws on people from across the district. Margaret Desmond leads the mentoring program for beginner umpires, while Sally Montano, a longtime CDFNL figure, has been a driving force behind the league's Development Umpires Program. Karen Speirs is involved through Colac Tigers, and is also mother to umpires Eliza and Olivia Speirs. Sara and Kylie Morrissy, Eva Callahan and Cassie Stephens have all contributed to the local umpiring effort as well. 

Melissa Kettle runs the CDFNL's umpires program, which she introduced this year alongside Maddie Okely from AFL Barwon. Tracey Tann runs the CNNA, which offers a parallel route into umpiring and its own path to testing for C Badges. 

Getting started is simple 

New umpires only need to complete a couple of online courses to begin. From there, they're shadowed and mentored on Friday nights at the Eastern Reserve courts, known locally as “The Tip”, building match experience alongside someone more experienced. The goal is a clear pathway from C Badge through to B Badge and beyond. 

The results are showing 

Four Colac Tigers have earned their C Badges this year, with six more added across other district clubs, including Simpson, Apollo Bay, Otway Districts, Colac Imperials and Lorne. Emmy Perkins has become the latest Colac umpire to reach a B Badge. 

The program has been especially valuable for smaller clubs that have historically struggled to recruit umpires, with Apollo Bay, Otway and Simpson all benefiting. Umpires who show strong form get the chance to officiate tournaments in Geelong and Melbourne, opportunities that can lead to being scouted for higher honours. Emily Green, an A Badge umpire, is cited by the program as a valuable high performance coaching resource, and occasionally umpires CDFNL finals herself. 

Following in the family footsteps 

Eliza Speirs is a Colac Tigers Under-19s netballer and Year 12 student at Trinity College Colac. She started umpiring at 14, after watching her older sister Olivia go through the same pathway, and first stepped onto the court at The Tip back in Grade 6 through school-holiday beginner programs. 

Eliza says having a mentor watching and coaching her in real time took the pressure off early on, helping her build confidence over time. She says umpiring has taught her skills that extend well beyond the netball court, including how to handle difficult situations as she heads toward the end of school. 

Olivia, now a B Badge umpire, is currently studying at university in Melbourne, where umpiring has become her main job. 

For Sally Montano, umpiring is something she has come to find genuinely fascinating in its own right. She says she now watches umpires as closely as she watches the game itself. She's also frank about the fact that umpire abuse does happen at their level, which is exactly why having a support person or mentor courtside matters: to shut down bad situations when they happen, and to help umpires build the resilience to keep going. 

C Badged umpires, 2026