Brisbane Lions men’s and women’s players will be umpiring at AFL Queensland Community clubs across Brisbane this Sunday morning to celebrate the Lions’ Community Footy Round.

The players will be spread across five clubs including Morningside AFC, Mt Gravatt AFC, Sandgate AFC, Victoria Point AFC and Wests Juniors AFC to umpire a junior football game as either a goal umpire, boundary umpire or second field umpire.

To celebrate Community Round, the boys donned their junior footy guernseys for the Captain's Run pic.twitter.com/uDp38VfY4F — Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) July 19, 2019

Lions CEO Greg Swann said this initiative aims to promote and support umpiring at the community footy level.

“Umpiring is a key part of the game,” Swann said.

“We as an industry need to encourage people to umpire and treat them as true partners in the game.

“By doing this we’re hoping to shine a light on the issue and help encourage more to take it up.

Swann said he hopes it will be a learning experience for both the players and children.

“I think the players will get an appreciation of how hard it is to umpire,” he said.

“It’s also about talking to the junior players about how to respect the umpires.”

AFL Queensland CEO, Dean Warren, praised the support of the Brisbane Lions in raising the profile of umpiring.

“We are looking forward to welcoming Lions AFL and AFLW players to umpire across junior footy fields this Sunday,” he said.

“Umpires are an integral part of our game.

“With the continued growth in AFL participation across Queensland we need to continue to drive umpiring recruitment.”

The Community Footy Round festivities will start the night earlier, with an AFLQ club named “Brisbane Lions Community Club of the Year.” Community footy representatives form a guard of honour when the Lions run out and one lucky person will toss the coin.