THE South East Football Umpires League is celebrating this week after a former member reached the pinnacle of his career to date.
Michael Button was chosen as a goal umpire in the grand final of the Australian National Under 18 Championships, after being part of the complete competition this season.
Button is a former South East goal umpire, starting his career here in 2008.
He umpired his first Western Border grand final in 2010 at the tender age of 12, then officiated in the following five grand finals.
Button has since moved to Adelaide to undertake tertiary studies, where he has been umpiring at a high level.
SEFUL committee member Terry Willoughby said the league was proud of what Button had achieved so far.
“Michael’s first game was Under 14s at Vansittart Park,” he said.
“It is a pretty fair journey for a kid who was only about 10 years old at the time.
“To get his first A Grade grand final at 12 years old is a pretty big achievement in itself.
“At that point we saw there was no impediment to him doing it – he was probably the best goal umpire that we had at the time.
“He had proven in his two and half years he was more than capable.
“He was pretty much an unflappable type of kid and his performances along the way had shown he would be able to do the right thing whenever the pressure moments came.”
In that first grand final between West Gambier and Millicent there was certainly one of those pressure moments, where Button was forced to make a call, surrounded by players from both clubs.
“In the last couple of minutes Millicent could have hit the front with a score that went over the goal post,” Willoughby recalled.
“Given there were quite a few people surrounding him, you expect it would test him out, but he withstood the pressure that was placed on him.
“There were several players suggesting it was a goal and several from the other side suggesting something else, but Michael got the decision right.
“The ball went over the post and West Gambier eventually won the grand final by a handful of points.”
Willoughby said it was that unflappable attitude which ensured Button would continue to excel in his chosen profession.
“Since then he went on to prove himself in the next five grand finals on a local front, before moving to Adelaide for tertiary studies, but he also took his goal umpiring skills with him,” he said.
“In his first year in Adelaide, just turning 19, he was quite happy in the thought he might start in SANFL Under 16s, maybe do a few Under 18s, but in fact he embraced all grades – 16s, 18s,
Reserves and finished the season with a couple of league football appointments.
“Goal umpires at 19 years of age, they do not reach those heights in one year.
“Since then he has gone on to umpire another 20-30 league games, before culminating in this appointment.
“You would have to say it puts him in a category at that age level as one of the best four goal umpires in the country in that group.”
Willoughby said Button had always held hopes of becoming an AFL umpire and said his dream was certainly on track.
While umpires of any form are hard to come by, he said the advantages of taking on such a role were quite clear.
“These guys are much closer than we can get to the action,” Willoughby said.
“They are in hand-shaking distance from the best footballers going around.
“If you go to the MCG or the Adelaide Oval to see a grand final, they present as ants (to the general public), but those guys are right up there.
“Going back a few years where the Crows had blokes like Tony Modra taking screamers in the goal square, you cannot get a much better view than that.”
