At 72, veteran umpire Gerry Wood is one of the Northern Territory's longest-serving footy umpires – he even has an oval named after him.
But this kind of dedicated, decades-long stretch as an enforcer of the rules is becoming very rare.
Fit as a fiddle, he's long since lost count of the number of games he's umpired – but he reckons it's well past 1,000.
A day adjudicating means hours under the gruelling northern sun and sometimes tolerating abuse – a trend that has seen large numbers of umpires hang up their whistles.
But after almost 60 years of attending games in some of the most remote parts of Australia, Mr Wood says "he's used to it".
"I love the Territory, the heat doesn't worry me, the humidity doesn't worry me, once you're out there concentrating on a game, you've got plenty of water to drink … I enjoy it, it's fun," he said.
"It keeps you occupied, and from a brain point of view it keeps you alert because you've got to make instant decisions when you're out there.
"I don't want to sit around and do nothing; I feel young and as long as my legs still hold up and I can exercise every morning on my electric trike – I'll keep going.
"I want to stay alive and healthy as long as I can."
The long drive to play
This weekend, players and spectators from some of the country's most isolated towns travelled hundreds of kilometres on dusty outback roads for the Umpires Carnival in Katherine, about three hours south of Darwin.
The annual event brings together far-flung Indigenous communities from across a region the size of Germany for the first game of the year.
It marks the start of the Big Rivers Football League, now in it's 35th year, and is a chance for people who may have been isolated for months — cut off by heavy rains and flooding — to reconnect with friends, family and culture.
It's also an opportunity to raise money for umpire development in the NT and celebrate the contribution that umpires, like Mr Wood, make to the sport.
Eunica John-Forrest, a member of the newly-formed Ngukurr girls team, spent almost six hours on a bus travelling the 320 kilometres into Katherine for the Saturday carnival.
One game down – which the team ultimately lost to the Arnhem Crows — and she was spent as the temperature soared to almost 40 degrees.
Despite this, she said the trip was worth it.
"It's all about fun for us, and getting more girls involved in footy," she said.
For Clint Firth, the regional development manager for the football league, there was no way to tell how the day would turn out.
With a long drive for almost all the teams involved, and a number of obstacles they'd have to overcome along unsealed roads, it meant pre-scheduling was out of the question.
Teams drew times out of a hat for the matches – shortened to two 10-minute halves, with each team playing three games — in the hope they'd make it to the finals.
"The furtherest [sic] probably came from Borroloola, about 700 clicks away, Lajamanu have come from about 580 clicks away, Daly River, 300 clicks away … teams from all over," Mr Firth said.
"It's the perfect chance for teams to get some miles in their legs, get some match practice, get some match fitness.
"It's electric footy here; you've got Ngukurr who moved the ball from one end of the oval to the other as quick as anything, Arnhem Crows did the same.
"It's end-to-end footy so it's really quick. It's really hot, these teams may run out of gas at some stage, but that's Katherine footy."
The Garrak Bombers took out the women's grand final 6.2 (38) defeating the Arnhem Crows 2.1 (13).
The men's final was won by Katherine team Eastside 3.2 (20) defeating Borroloola 3.1 (19).
Over 6,000 umpires leave the game
AFLNT's umpiring manager, Andrew Wainwright, said while The Umpires Carnival was a longstanding tradition as a pre-season competition, it was needed now more than ever.
Despite a crackdown on abuse by the AFL, the industry has seen a major demise across Australia.
"Over 6,000 umpires have left the game over the last couple of years … which has really created a fair bit of stress across the country," he said.
Mr Wainwright said the critical shortage in the Territory was leading to umpires adjudicating up to six matches per week, which he said would likely lead to burn out.
"What we're trying to do is a call to action to the clubs to come and help for the season … the best umpires are actually club footy players," he said.
"Without umpires there is no football."
