History dawns for female ump0:51
AFL: 25 year old Eleni Glouftsis will make history this weekend when she becomes the first female to field umpire an official AFL game.
ASK Tom Glouftsis how his daughter made it here, to AFL history maker, and this son of Greek immigrants talks ditches.
Digging ditches and earning respect.
Because, as Adelaide whistleblower Eleni Glouftsis prepares to become the first female central umpire in an AFL premiership clash on Sunday, her dad holds no doubts where the 25-year-old gained the composure, determination and work ethic to make it to the top when no other woman has.
That, and the ability to develop instant mutual respect with sometimes hot-headed players unaccustomed to venting on-field frustrations to a, well, a woman.
Enter Eleni’s grandfather — Christos Glouftsis, circa 1950s Adelaide, standing in those ditches. Digging.
“My father was a labourer with the old E&WS to begin with, when he first came to Australia in 1954,” Mr Glouftsis says.
“He worked his way up and was eventually a maintenance foreman. He was well loved by his workers — because he would get his hands dirty with them. He’d get down in the trenches and dig with them.
“It was respect — and the thing about respect is, you have to give before you get.
“I learnt that from my father and, looking at it now, I guess that went into Eleni — all three of our children, actually.
“It’s an important factor in umpiring and in life — and I think that is what serves Eleni so well.”
Women have umpired before in the AFL — most notably goal umpire Chelsea Roffey, so highly regarded she made her Grand Final debut in 2012.
Soon-to-be AFL umpire Eleni Glouftsis, centre, with her parents Tom and Dianne.Source:Supplied
Glouftsis, herself, became the first female umpire to officiate a pre-season NAB Challenge match in February last year. A season earlier, she was the first to umpire a VFL game. Before that, the first in an SANFL league match.
But until 12.40pm on Sunday at Etihad Stadium, in a clash between Essendon and West Coast, none has ever been entrusted with commanding the play as a central umpire in an AFL game for premiership points.
So Eleni Glouftsis, AFL umpire, is a big deal.
“But I don’t think that was ever her goal,” mum Dianne says.
“(Getting to the) AFL was always the pinnacle. She just wanted to go as far as she could in her umpiring.
“She didn’t want any favours — and she didn’t get them. That was important for her — she never wanted an easier path.”
In the same year the AFL women’s competition exploded with such popularity across the nation, Glouftsis will write her own new chapter in footy history on Sunday.
And she will do it with a support crew of more than 40 friends and family, including 91-year-old grandmother Roma, making the trek from Adelaide to Melbourne to witness her debut.
“Nana has to be there,” Dianne grins. “Mum went to 90 per cent of Eleni’s games in the SANFL, she didn’t miss one very often.
“Family is very important to Eleni, and to her partner Dillon (an AFL boundary umpire).”
The youngest of three children, Glouftsis is nine years younger than sister Marika and seven years younger than brother Chris.
The age gap meant there was little in the way of sibling rivalries and backyard scraps for young Eleni.
“If anything, she was the moderating factor in many ways for the other two,” Tom says.
Sport, as much as family, has been a constant in Glouftsis’ life.
“In fact, I came home from having her on the Friday and on the Saturday morning we were out at Chris’s soccer,” Dianne says.
Eleni Glouftsis, second from right, with her Adelaide High School senior girls football team-mates.Source:Supplied
“Right from the start, she’s always had sport. All the way through school, she always played something.”
Cricket, tennis, soccer and volleyball were there, and Glouftsis held the role of sports captain at Adelaide High. She was also part of an inaugural women’s cricket team with Prospect, where she skippered for two years.
But, born into a Port Adelaide family despite neighbouring North Adelaide’s SANFL home ground, football was always No.1.
She admired Gavin Wanganeen’s sheer talent, and St Kilda’s Nick Riewoldt. In tennis, the all-round grace of Roger Federer.
Tom was an accomplished suburban footballer who, by retirement in his mid-30s, had racked up 300 junior and senior games from Sturt’s under-17s, Glenunga, Kenilworth and Hyde Park to the Adelaide Hills.
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Tom had finished his playing days by the time Eleni arrived, preferring instead to encourage his childrens’ activities.
Like her passion for sport, Eleni’s profession as a teacher mirrors her parents — Tom in high school and Dianne in junior primary ages. Eleni’s sister Marika is also a teacher.
Tom says the personal toolkit needed inside a classroom is similar to that required to control a football game.
“It’s the people skills,” he says. “And the patience.
“It’s to do with temperament. You need a reasonable temperament and understanding that not everyone is going to like you.
“If you’re able to keep your head when others are losing theirs, you’re standing tallest.”
As the hype around her debut and her backstory heightened this week, Eleni has insisted there were no on-field run-ins with players during her early years in football’s male-dominated domain that had tested her determination to make it to the AFL.
Eleni Glouftsis and partner Dillon Tee in front of their home in Nailsworth.Source:Supplied
The sledges more often come from the spectators than players, she says, and are almost uniformly umpire-based rather than gender attacks.
Tom and Dianne agree — confessing to sometimes escaping to a venue’s outer boundary to dodge the one-eyed histrionics of fans.
“We would hear more than she does,” Dianne says.
But there will be no need for escaping Sunday when their youngest daughter fulfils a dream — and, they hope, helps inspire more women to follow.
“It’s got to be pride,” Tom says of the expectant emotion. “It’s pride in her achievements, but more so in Eleni.
“We love the idea of what she’s achieved, but mostly it’s for her. That goes for our whole family.
“Even my cousin in Greece, when Eleni did the NAB Challenge game last year, messaged me on Facebook to say it was on the Greek news. My aunty and uncle, too.
“They all thought it was soccer, of course — because the next question was, ‘Will she be going to the World Cup?’.”
Unlikely. But, perhaps with Sunday’s milestone conquered, possibly a future date with the MCG on Grand Final day.
Originally published as How Eleni realised her AFL dream
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