SHANE McInerney has little memory of the sixth round of 1994. Greg Williams less so. It is, after all, more than a quarter of a century ago.
But history records that the Carlton-Sydney contest at Princes Park in April of that year doubled as the AFL field umpire’s first senior match, on a Saturday afternoon in which he, Brett Allen and Peter Carey awarded ‘Diesel’ the maximum three votes in the latter’s Brownlow Medal-winning ’94 season.
This week, on the eve of McInerney’s record-breaking 496th match as a senior League umpire (surpassing the 495 set by the AFL Umpires Head Coach Hayden Kennedy with his final game in 2011), McInerney and Williams were reunited on that very ground where it all began.
In reflecting on that moment in ’94, McInerney conceded: “The only thing I remember of that game was thinking ‘Gee, this is fast, I can’t think this through, I’ll have to go on my gut feel and react to it’”.
“I have no memory of the first bounce, which is probably a good thing, because it means I must have bounced the ball straight,” McInerney said.
The call that changed it all.
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) July 1, 2019
A true Blue if ever there was one - go behind the scenes to when Ed Curnow was told he would captain our club for the very first time. #BoundByBlue pic.twitter.com/x0XTqtvge7
“But I’ve ridden the mental rollercoaster where you’ve bounced it off the side of a mountain and still bounced it straight, to times where you swear you’re bouncing a ticking hand grenade.”
The eldest of five siblings with two brothers and two sisters, the Ballarat-born McInerney pursued an early playing career with St Pat’s College and Ballarat YCW, mostly off a half-back flank.
“In the end it (playing) wasn’t really my bag, but I enjoyed running. I had a mate who was umpiring and there was 30 bucks a game in it which I thought was better than getting it for stacking supermarket shelves . . . so I thought ‘Let’s have a go’,” McInerney said.
“I had a really good coach at the time, Phil Waight, who was the umpire pushed over by that player (John Bourke) at the Lakeside Oval and I moved up pretty quickly through the ranks in country footy.”
Having initially relocated to Brisbane through his career in business, McInerney got the nod for his first AFL game – Carlton v Sydney - by way of a landline phone call from David Levens. For the next three years before relocating to Melbourne, McInerney commuted between states to officiate in League games – and the rest, as they say, is umpiring history.
Now 48, McInerney conservatively estimates he’s covered around 7500 kilometres in 25 seasons worth of matchdays . . . and there’s no sign of slowing either for the man who lists the Grand Finals of 2004 and ’07 and two international rules series on his umpiring CV.
Along the way, he’s also experienced significant on-field apparel upgrades – from white, to yellow, to red and to green – and as he readily attests: “My kids at one point thought of me as one of the Wiggles”.
Greg Williams and Shane McInerney return to Ikon Park ahead of the latter's record game. (Photo: Carlton Media)
Reflecting on the world of change throughout his time with the whistle, McInerney regards the wiring of field umpires for sound as perhaps the most significant development.
“When I think back to the first three or four years, I was more worried about what my comeback might be to a player who told me I was no good. This was not the headspace you wanted to be in,” McInerney conceded.
“Back then, the game was full of everyone sledging everyone else and sledging was used as a tool to test people. Players wanted to see how you responded to the comment ‘That was a **** decision, you’ll be in the bush next week’ because that would then determine how you responded – and if they thought they’d got you they’d be into you.
“I’ve seen umpires who weren’t able to cope with that — good umpires lost along the way. So when microphones came in, it meant everyone had to lift their standards - and I’m not just talking the obvious stuff here like dropping the F-bombs - and it also offered umpires the opportunity to explain to the broader football public why certain decisions were being made.”
McInerney is of the view that Carlton’s time-honoured Latin motto Men Sana In Corpore Sano – A Sound Mind In A Sound Body – could just as easily apply to him and his fellow on-field adjudicators.
Physically speaking he’s in great shape. Mentally, equally so. Unquestionably, the three-umpire system (adopted in his maiden season of ’94) has served him well.
And in reflecting on the past quarter of a century in the craft, McInerney would like to think that he has genuinely earned respect — which is perhaps the greatest acknowledgement that can be bestowed upon any umpire (or player for that matter).
In being asked to describe how he’d best like to be remembered as a field umpire, McInerney replied: “I’d like to think I’ve been a solid decision maker, a bloke who had a good relationship with the players, who made decisions in the right spirit and who got the job done”.
Of the milestone itself – “the club record”, as he put it - McInerney,= dryly suggested “It’s always a bit touchy when it’s the coach’s record you’re trying to break”. But in Kennedy, McInerney knows he has no greater advocate at his back and none will be more supportive than him through the latter’s 496th match and 500th to come.
On Saturday night, McInerney will raise the Sherrin in his record-breaking match to commence proceedings between the Western Bulldogs and Geelong at Marvel Stadium. All being well, he’ll follow suit in game No.500 on August 3, when Melbourne and Richmond meet on a Saturday night on the mighty MCG.
At a time when the fraternity has come in for more than its fair share of flak, McInerney’s feel-good yarn is indeed timely.
“With women’s footy in particular, the game needs umpires,” McInerney said.
“Don’t get me wrong, umpiring’s not for everyone and it’s not supposed to be for everyone. Pretty quickly you work out where your character sits, what you can deal with and what you can’t.
“The point is that the environment cannot be negative. It’s got to be inclusive so that umpires can really enjoying being involved, rather than feeling there’s outside negativity.”
