650 By 26 For Troy Cusack

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Published on Saturday, 21 December 2013 14:02

When you look at the Games Record Lists for any sport, the people at the top of the lists are generally in the older age bracket within their group which makes sense. The longer you are there, the more games you can play or in our case umpire. This is pretty much the case at the Riddell Umpires with all of our top 10 umpires being over the age of 50. But then comes number 11 on the list. Troy Cusack currently holds that position and he is at the ripe old age of 26.

Troy joined the Riddell Umpires in 2002 and Round 5 2014 sees him umpire his 650th game. Troy started his career as a Boundary Umpire for the senior competition and a field umpire for the junior competition. In recent years, Troy moved over to the field fulltime umpiring seniors while maintaining his committment to the juniors.

Troy has experience success in all aspects of his umpiring. Troy Umpired the VAFA U/19 Grand Final in his first season in 2002. He Umpired the RDFL U/18 Grand Final in 2003, 04, 05, 08 and 09. He umpired the BFL U/18's Grand Final in 2006 and the BFL Reserves in 2006. Troy umpired his final Grand Final on the Boundary in the RDFL Reserves in 2010. Since moving to the field for the senior competition, Troy has managed to join the finals panel and in 2013 umpired the RDFL U/18 Grand Final.

It is in the Junior Competition though that Troy has had his most success. Troy umpired the U/13 Grand Final in the field in 2004, his 1st Grand Final as a field umpire. It was in 2007 however that Troy had his ultimate success umpiring his first U/16A Grand Final. He then backed it up again and again and again in 2008, 2009 and 2010. 2011 was to be Troy's 5th U/16A Grand Final in a row, a feat that has never occured before. Unfortunately Troy was torn down by injury at training the wednesday before the Grand Final, the night that he would have been announced as the 1st selected umpire in the panel for that game. Obviously devastated, Troy came back bigger and better the following year and pushed his way back into the 2012 U/16A Grand Final. Even as he pushed into reguarly umpiring senior football in the field on a saturday in 2013, Troy maintained his commitment to the Junior Competition and was rewarded with his 6th U/16A Grand Final. A feat that may never be replicated.

Everyone at Riddell Umpires congratulates Troy on his success and commitment to the umpiring group. Troy is a credit to himself and his family and is highly respected by anyone that meets him. We as an association look forward to watching him develop as a Senior Field umpire as he moves towards becoming one of the youngest ever umpires to reach 1000 games.