By Esther Lauaki
Werribee umpire Greg Cullen is taking officiating his 500th football match in his stride.
He will clock up the milestone on Saturday, April 27, and said he hoped to mark the occasion by taking control of the Geelong and District Football League match between his beloved Werribee Centrals and Bell Post Hill at Galvin Park.
He said 500 matches was “sort of” a big deal.
“It’s the minor milestone of the major ones,” he said.
He started on the boundary at local games in 1995 and later moved into central umpiring.
“I was the secretary of Werribee Centrals Football Club and I was always at games anyway,” Mr Cullen said.
“They didn’t have boundary umpires, so I thought I would help out and then progressed to central umpiring … now I’ve gone to the goal because my knees are gone. I played sports nearly all my life and umpiring became my sport because there’s a lot of running.”
In his years of umpiring, Mr Cullen said one of his most memorable games took place a decade ago at Barwon Prison as part of Naidoc Week.
“It was certainly one of the weirdest ones,” he said. “Quite an interesting game – getting scanned on the way through and seeing sniffer dogs on the sideline.”
Mr Cullen said that copping heat from footy fans came with the territory and he would carry on doing what he loved for as long as he
could.
“You just laugh it off,” he said. “It just becomes part of the banter and generally they’re really good.”
