JIMMY Ainsworth confidently strolls into EDFL headquarters and takes up a vacant chair after sharing a quick hello with his old mate, Kenny Waters.
Over his right shoulder is a list of the EDFL’s Life Members.
J. Ainsworth is among them.
It’s a Monday afternoon in early August, the league’s busiest time of year and here’s Jimmy, regaling the room with some of his best yarns from an umpiring career that currently sits at 1998 games.
Some of those tales include the day he got hit by a car while running the boundary at Deer Park (he came back to do the final quarter that day) and the time he was slapped by an angry mother as a fieldy.
But now, 35 years on since joining the EDFL’s umpiring ranks, it’s the fact that Jimmy can still be seen walking laps down at Windy Hill on training nights and somewhere in goal around the EDFL on weekends that will serve as his greatest legacy.
“It keeps me fit … training two nights a week,” Jimmy says.
“I reckon that at my age, I’m pretty fit. We walk from the footy ground, down to the clock tower and back, two nights a week, before Rowan (Sawers) gets us out on the oval.”
On Saturday, after an Under-18s game between Roxburgh Park and Maribyrnong Park, Jimmy will head down Pascoe Vale Road to JP Fawkner Reserve to stand in goal for the cut-throat final-round senior clash between Oak Park and Essendon Doutta Stars.
At the very same ground where he umpired his 1000th game between the Kangaroos and Airport West, Jimmy will officiate in game number 2000.
“If you look at it, even a grand final, is just another game,” Jimmy said.
“I know they’re grand finals or 2000 appointments and it will be a highlight, but you’ve got to go out there and treat every game as your first and do your best.”
Jimmy’s powers of recollection are phenomenal.
He still has every scorecard from every game he’s done and remembers like yesterday his first EDFL game between Strathmore and Ascot Vale.
It’s a passion for the game that has never diminished over a remarkable journey for one of the EDFL’s most revered personalities.
“He epitomises someone who has been involved in the game for a long, long while,” EDFL Director of Umpiring Rowan Sawers said.
“He’s a team player, always on the track, always worried about his team mates and his other umpires and what they’re doing, and how he can assist.
“Even at this stage of his career, he wants to see umpiring improve, he’s a life member of the EDFL, which just shows what a tireless worker he is not only of the EDFL but the Umpire’s Association.
“To see someone out on the track week in week out, who never misses a night and never misses a game, to reach a 2000-game milestone is a credit to himself and to his wife and family who have supported him along the way.
“So I’d like to say on behalf of all umpires, well done, Jimmy.
“A fantastic effort.”
