Laurence’s journey to the biggest stage in Victorian football has been a long one, which began all the way back in 1999, in the Diamond Valley (now Northern) Football League. Treading a familiar path for young umpires, running the boundary in senior games on a Saturday and field umpiring juniors on a Sunday, Laurence found that he had a greater passion for the boundary and developed his craft to the stage where he was ready to go to the next level.

A competitor in track and field for the Diamond Valley Athletic Club in the summer – something which continues to this day – Laurence felt primed to impress in his first pre-season trialling ‘downtown’ in 2004. Indeed, something which has stuck with him down the years was the fact that he ran the Tan in 12:30, coming second only to Adam Coote. This provided the springboard for Laurence’s early successes at the VFL, benching a Reserves final and running TAC Cup finals in his first year. Whilst showing great promise, however, Laurence dropped his whistle during a run-through in his TAC Cup semi-final and, not carrying a spare, this did not go down well with the coach!

At this time, the boundary umpires’ coach was Peter Bradford, who would give Laurence his senior debut the following year, but whom he recalls not handing out senior games lightly. This impressed upon Laurence that he had to earn his stripes and that success would not come on a platter for him. Furthermore, boundary umpires were still running ‘two-out’ in senior games, which Laurence recalls ‘was hard work!’

With the three boundary umpire system having been in place for several years now, such ‘hard work’ is something that Laurence’s younger colleagues no longer have to experience. Something else that umpires newer to VFL football would find surprising is that what Laurence describes as the ‘pokey little rooms’ now used by umpires on match days at Victoria Park used to be their training facilities during the week. Such changes are indicative of those instigated by Kevin Mitchell over many years and continued to this day by Angela Lindsay and Cameron Nash – and Laurence is highly thankful to the umpiring department, for providing a professional environment for him to be the best that he can be over the years, as well as to his coaches.

After Peter Bradford, Laurence experienced his first taste of Grand Final success and established himself as a regular senior umpire under Craig Tyrrell, whilst the ongoing tutelage of Matthew Vitiritti ‘has polished [Laurence’s] game’ to a highly consistent level which has now seen him achieve the ultimate in Victorian football in his twelfth year on the VFL list.

Also, during 2015, Laurence notched up a significant milestone – his 150th VFL game – and, furthermore, he became the first boundary umpire to achieve this feat. As he now closes in on 175 games and VFL Life Membership, it has been opportune for Laurence to reflect upon his umpiring journey. He recalls, ‘I was a kid with a lot of experienced guys around me and now it’s the absolute reverse; I’m the most experienced guy on the list!’ Despite his seniority within the boundary umpiring group now, however, Laurence still feels on top of his game – as fit and as motivated as he has ever been – and his VFL Grand Final appointment is proof of this. He has also used his senior status among the boundary umpires to mentor the group’s younger members and to pass his valuable experience on to them.

For someone who has spent over fifteen years in umpiring and over a decade at the VFL, Nick Laurence is an example to his peers of the value of discipline, commitment, resilience and sacrifice – ‘so many people don’t understand’, Laurence says, the things that must be done without because of umpiring, such as winter holidays and countless weekend family functions which he has had to forego. For his peers, he believes that one should ‘embrace the journey and use the knockdowns to make sure that you do bounce back stronger’. Whatever lies in wait now for Nick Laurence in umpiring, two things can be guaranteed: no one will begrudge him his success… and he will be carrying a spare whistle with him onto the ground.

Nick is the leading boundary umpire for VFL matches in history, and equal fourth in VFL finals matches.