tonight will be goldspinks last match...

[stinger]

pity the prick gets one last chance to flower us....

"Most hated umpire departs

Peter Hanlon | February 15, 2008

A LITTLE of football's perverse joy disappears tonight, when the people's choice as the most hated umpire the game has known blows his whistle for the final time (possibly at a crucial moment, for an infringement no one else thought was there).

As Darren Goldspink freely admitted yesterday: "It's fair to say that a lot of footy fans don't like me."

Goldspink knows his place; he has heard people blame him for decisions made on the ground — while he has been sitting among the crowd. He has been abused on the street, has read threats posted on websites. It says something that the internet has affected him more than any rule change since he first put ball to turf in 1989.

"It's funny (how) people associate everything that happens in umpiring through one person," Goldspink said. He doesn't regret any decisions, content that he believed they were right at the time.

He was unsure if the Richmond and St Kilda faithful would be joined at Telstra Dome tonight by supporters from other clubs keen to give him a send-off (the entrepreneurial potential of Darren Goldspink "Sorry" T-shirts selling outside the ground is staggering). A farewell tour in a bullet-proof "Goldy-mobile" has merit, too.

He asked the umpires' department for a round-one farewell game, but will settle for a pre-season farewell in front of family and friends, noting drily: "That's about 20 people who wouldn't have been there otherwise."

At heart, he knows his body would not push through another month of training anyway, a realisation that hit home after returning from a summer holiday in Echuca, when he simply could not get going again. "I was shot, just couldn't run. I've made a lot of decisions, because that's our job, but making the decision after 20 years to give away something you love, that was very tough."

Goldspink has umpired 371 games, six of them grand finals, and been All-Australian three times. It is a record of excellence and his boss Jeff Gieschen said yesterday there was no one more passionate or who loved the trade more.

In the stands, on talkback radio and in public bars, the less charitable will add that no one loved putting themselves at the centre of the action more, too. (There are Hawthorn fans convinced their lives would have been richer had Goldspink spent his Saturdays on the golf course — or at least on preliminary final Saturday, 2001.)

"They don't know me personally," he said of the detractors. "I suppose it's more the role that I play that they don't like. That's part of footy, I can cope with that."

He has been abused by strangers on the street, mostly in good humour, although "some people get aggressive". Has he been hurt? "Physically or emotionally?" he asks, droll to the end. Sometimes, yes, when the barbs have reached his family — "the things people can put on the internet are quite over the top".

Did he feel added pressure, being the game's "highest profile" (ie, most hated) official? "Sometimes you don't want people talking about what you do, sometimes it gets frustrating. (But) all I had to do each week was go out there and pay the free kicks that were there. I didn't feel any more pressure."

He would not name any specific players who echoed the fans' voice in the heat of battle, but admitted some would surely be happy to see him go. He has never been shy and, while conceding he "probably said some things that I shouldn't have said", there was no fawning over "the game" that we so deify.

"I couldn't name every good game that I did, but I did a lot of ordinary games, too, just quietly."

The last two of his grand finals, the back-to-back Sydney-West Coast thrillers, will warm him in retirement. A rash decision could have won or lost a premiership, but the umpiring was invisible. "Sometimes when the game is so close they're easier to umpire," Goldspink reflected, pointing to everyone being intent on playing the ball and winning. "It's not very often you have to intervene."

It was emotional to standing before his peers with the news, but he is comfortable now to be done. And looking forward to having a pie — "or two" — at the footy (at Western Bulldogs games, his family's team), and "blending in with the crowd", as impossible as that seems.

He is confident the void will be easily filled and even had a comforting word for those who fear a gaping Goldspink hole has just appeared in their footy-following world.

"It took me a while to retire. I wanted to make sure I had somebody who could take over the mantle as the most hated umpire, and I think I'll pass that baton on to Ray Chamberlain. I've left it in good hands."

[Beekay]

I love umpires so much.

They make me feel like I'm good at everything I do.

[cowboy18]

"It took me a while to retire. I wanted to make sure I had somebody who could take over the mantle as the most hated umpire, and I think I'll pass that baton on to Ray Chamberlain. I've left it in good hands."

Terrific quote though!


Good on him - reffing/umpiring any sport can be a lousing job and our game is better for having people doing it to the best of their ability. Prejudices aside, aussie rules can be a terribly difficult game to umpire owing the 50/50 nature of many decisions. Couple that with edicts that change the way that rules are supposed to be interpreted (and the 360degree nature of the game) and mistakes are inevitable. I always had the feeling he was just ok, prone to bad games and favouring more successful teams but... I may be biased.

He's still an idiot but congrats to him on a long career at the highest level.

[Otiman]

Can we put a limit on the size of pictures in sigs? they're getting a little out of hand.

[meher baba]

I will personally be delighted to see the back of Goldspink, even though I think he was above average quality in his decision-making (which, among the current crop of umpires, is of course not saying very much at all).

However, he is a show pony whose unprofessional on-field conduct has made a significant contribution to lowering the standing of umpires with players and fans.

The ideal umpire/referee in any sport is the one that you don't notice at all. Unlike, with all their faults, the likes of Allen and Vozzo, Goldspink was never satisfied with being anonymous to the players and fans.

And here lies the source of the problem.

[Sainter_4_life]

Now if only we could get rid of Mclaren, Mcburney, Head, Allen etc etc......

[SaintBot]

i saw a big sign in the forward pocket saying

DIE
GOLDSPINK

[Sainter_4_life]

i saw a big sign in the forward pocket saying

DIE
GOLDSPINK

Yeah security wondered down and forcefully removed it from said patron

[stinger]

i liked the one saying...."we will miss you goldspink".....person holding it then turned it over..... other side said.............."NOT"




bit of a worry though....the clown is interested in going into the media....


..i reckon a parking inspector would be more his speed......

[stinger]

Now if only we could get rid of Mclaren, Mcburney, Head, Allen etc etc......

you missed ray......


..i see him sometimes..


.might tell him i will arrange to have the suitcase belted out of him if he gives us a bad time......

[stinger]

anyone hear the crack on SEN about the bummers getting a compensationary pick now that goldspink has pulled the plug..???.now that is funny.......watson didn't think so last night....

[Mr Magic]

anyone hear the crack on SEN about the bummers getting a compensationary pick now that goldspink has pulled the plug..???.now that is funny.......watson didn't think so last night....

I believe that it was CrannyPete who rang SEN and suggested that Essendon would have to elevate xomeone off the Rookie List as Goldsping had retired.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

it almost made me wat to puke all the attention that egotistical halfwit got last night hell they even interveiwd the maggot ... im of the firm belif umpires should not be noticed if i can watch a game and not notice them then they have done a great job ppl pay to see the players not the F***ing umpire !