Goal umpire Peter Balding made history on the weekend, officiating in his 225th Peter Jackson VFL match and breaking the record of field umpire Dan Beard for VFL games umpired.

Balding, 39, said Beard – who umpired from 1994-2009 – was revered within the Victorian Football Umpires Association and that it felt “sort of strange” taking the record from him.

Peter Balding the goal umpire breaks the VFL umpire games record during the round ten VFL match between the Footscray Bulldogs and Geelong at Whitten Oval on June 11, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/AFL Media)

For perhaps the first time in a VFL umpiring career stretching back to 2001, Balding had a cheer squad stationed behind him at Whitten Oval for Saturday’s game between Footscray and Geelong, while he was honoured by his peers and mentors at umpire training the week prior.

The presentation made to him that night put into perspective exactly what it’s taken him – and his family – to break the record.

“As part of the presentation the guys did some algorithms in Google Maps and worked out I’ve travelled over 60,000 kilometres in my umpiring career,” Balding said.

“You realise you’ve had all that travelling time while I’ve got a wife (Crystal) and kids (Audrey, Genevieve and Maurice) at home. We’ve had three kids pretty much the whole time I’ve been umpiring… and umpiring often took priority.

“I never pulled out of games or requested changes. I committed 100 per cent, and you can’t do that unless you’ve got someone at the other end who’s making sacrifices like my wife has.”

With his dream of graduating to the AFL now past him, Balding said he was enjoying a “golden period” of his umpiring career, able to invest more time in his family but enjoying his craft more than ever.

After doing field and boundary umpiring as a junior, Balding left the caper for several years before returning – but not wanting to run as much. Goal umpiring was the answer.

However, Balding explained that being a goal umpire was more difficult than many people would think, and it took him several years to establish himself at senior VFL level after being promoted from umpiring in the Western Region FL.

“You see a lot of people that are gifted and come in and do senior footy in their first or second year,” Balding said. “That wasn’t me; I wasn’t a natural at all. I had to work a lot harder and it took me a lot longer to become natural at it.

“When a player overruns a ball it’s no big deal, but when we overrun it, it can mean getting a score wrong. There’s a lot of pressure on us and it takes a long time to be able to read the play and the flight of the ball properly.

“It was a tough apprenticeship. My first year in the VFL I didn’t even do finals. The second year I did a bit better and I didn’t make the seniors until the end of my third year… But by the end of that year it had clicked.”

Balding was involved in 10 straight Grand Finals at various levels from that point, including the 2008 VFL decider. He credited coaches from his early years in Kevin Mitchell and Andrew Sinclair for helping him find his feet at the level, as well as Leigh Keen – who, with a laugh, he called “the kingpin of mentoring goal umpires”.

With 225 VFL games under his belt and showing no sign of losing his love of the caper, Balding has now surely become a role model for aspiring umpires himself.

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