AFL Vic makes key coaching, umpiring appointments
AFL Victoria is pleased to announce two key appointments to bolster support for community football coaches and umpires across the state.
Jennifer Taffs will be joining AFL Victoria as State Coaching Manager, while Leigh Buwalda has been appointed to the role of Umpire Recruitment and Retention Lead. Both roles will be based in Melbourne.
Jennifer Taffs - State Coaching Manager
Taffs comes to football with a strong background in community sport and grassroots coaching, having held a range of roles with Cricket Australia in recent years. Most recently, Taffs was National Community Development Lead at cricket’s national governing body.
Key responsibilities of the newly created role will include ensuring community coaches across the state have access to resources to help them and there are strong support systems in place for coaches.
Leigh Buwalda - Umpire Recruitment and Retention Lead
Buwalda brings extensive football umpiring experience to the role having been involved in umpiring at the state level since 2011, including ten years as a running umpire and six years in coaching. He returns to community football having previously worked as Umpire Development Coordinator for AFL South East, while he will finish in his role working in finance at Victoria Police to join AFL Victoria.
The role will play an important part in AFL Victoria’s focus on growing the umpiring talent pool through outstanding recruitment, pathway and mentoring programs.
The news of the appointments comes as AFL Victoria is set to farewell Venue Capacity Lead, Jonathan Coyne and Umpiring Education and Support Coordinator, Andrew Talbot, who have both resigned. Both have made significant contributions to the game and we wish them well in their future endeavours. These roles will be advertised soon.
Head of AFL Victoria, Ben Kavenagh, said: "The appointments of Jennifer and Leigh to important roles reinforce the AFL’s commitment to supporting coaching and umpiring, with both areas being critical parts of community football. Without umpires and coaches, there is no game.
“COVID presented unprecedented challenges to the grassroots game, including to thousands of community coaches, many of whom are volunteers and did an outstanding job keeping their teams and clubs going through significant disruption.
“We understand our role in ensuring that community football thrives and that support is directed to where it’s needed most, which is part of what these appointments will be responsible for.”
In August last year, the AFL announced a major increase in community football investment, with 10 per cent of the game’s assessable revenue enshrined to go towards Game Development from 2023 onwards. This is resulting in an immediate uplift from $50 million total investment in community football in 2022, to $67 million in 2023, with further increases projected in coming years.
