Metricon, Victoria’s leading home builder, has had a long affiliation with the Geelong Football Umpires League. As part of this sponsorship, Metricon are also supporting a rare sporting event that took place Saturday 28th June 2008– an all female umpiring day.

The promotion of an All-Female Umpiring Panel day is the initiative of the Geelong Football Umpires League (GFUL) and involves a female exchange program with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) which will see five young SANFL Female Umpires coming to Geelong to participate in the program, three of them in the senior game and two in the Reserves game.

Metricon Area Sales Manager – Geelong, Simon Taylor, said that Metricon is committed to being part of the local community in which it operates.

"Since we commenced business in the area, we have established solid and lasting relationships with the local Geelong community," said Simon. “We are very excited about being involved in such a rare event that supports female sports.”

Bill Fulton, General Manager for the League, said that he has been pleased about the sponsorship arrangement with Metricon and looks forward to building a strong affiliation with the company.

"The Umpires League is a non-profit organisation, so any sponsorship we receive is a real bonus for local umpiring," said Bill. "We were thrilled when Metricon agreed to sponsor us for two years, giving us an opportunity to focus on training and developing local umpires, rather than financial concerns. We are even more thrilled that Metricon have come on board for the All-Female Umpiring Day. This really helps organizations like us get further recognition within our industry."

The program was also initiated to help raise the profile of female umpires in all umpiring disciplines and assist in the promotion and recruitment of females into umpiring. The chance to experience umpiring in a different environment at a very high level will also be of great significant benefit to those females involved in the exchange and there is absolutely no reason to doubt the standard of umpiring that these girls will provide in any of the Match Day games.