The law according to Fizz

Ian “Fizz” Jackson umpired over 500 games in central Victoria without ever making a report, preferring to administer justice in his own way.

Thank you to Leon Holt and Ian Jackson. Archival video reproduced courtesy of Hampden FNL, Swifts Creek FC and Dawn Teasdale.

TRANSCRIPT

[MEN SHOUTING]

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

LEON HOLT: I got to meet Fizz through junior football. Fizz used to cart me around everywhere and play footy. And then one thing led to another and I developed into seniors, and Fizz was a senior umpire in the North Central League. And so Fizz umpired quite a few games when I was a young fellow playing.

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

[MEN SHOUTING]

I didn’t actually get to see Fizz play. But if you listen to the storytellers around Wedderburn, they say Fizz didn’t mind dishing a little bit out, being a rover and being small, got that small man syndrome.

[MEN SHOUTING]

IAN “FIZZ” JACKSON: Yeah, I was a very fiery player. I was very tough and very fiery. But when I give it up, I thought, I went back and I just changed the attitude all over. And I thought, well, I’ve got to be a lot different from what I was as a player.

I started in 1974, 28 years of umpiring. I umpired 560 games, and I’ve done at least 20 Grand Finals.

[MAN SHOUTING]

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

I’ve done all those games without any reports. I’ve sent people off and I’ve warned people. I’d rather give them a 50-meter or talk to them than things like that. Because I thought that was a lot easier. Because well, I got more respect by doing that than reporting. That’s the way I looked at it.

[MEN SHOUTING]

LEON HOLT: Fizz was always on the side of the bloke that hit second, because he thought the bloke that hit second had a reason to hit. So the bloke that hit first was always in trouble with Fizz. Never be the instigator, but it was OK to be the retaliater.

[MEN SHOUTING]

Fizz was one of the very first of the idea of just get the play going, you know? If there was biffo or something happening, Fizz wasn’t going to run in and try and be authoritarian. He’d just throw the ball up, or bounce the ball, and just get on with it, you know? And if there was 10 blokes belting the heebie-jeebies out of each other down the road, well, eventually they’d stop, because the footy’d come into their area. And that was a— and it was a great philosophy, and a lot of blokes sort of— I suppose he’s a pioneer in that area, of getting the game going.

[MEN SHOUTING]

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

IAN “FIZZ” JACKSON: You’ve got to be fit. You’ve got to try very hard to make yourself fit. And I was happy to be ready to play. And you main thing, I’ve found, is to get in position. Make sure you’ve got in position. And make the effort to get in position would make it a lot easier. And the players, if you’ve done that, you’ve got a lot more respect back. That’s the way I look at it.

[MEN SHOUTING]

I enjoyed every bit of what I done. Use to just look for Saturday. Used to train every night and just look for Saturdays to come.