Broken Hill AFL is being taken over by "female power" with the all new Women's league proving a hit on and off the field.

Now two young ladies are taking it one step further and have joined the Umpiring band of merry "old" men!

The average age of Umpiring has taken a turn for the better with the "recruiting" of Margaret Paul (pictured right) and more recently Stacey Toohey (pictured left).

Margaret has been boundary umpiring for most of season 2012 and just last week did her first A grade game. 

Margaret has been a welcome addition to the Umpiring ranks in 2012 said Umpires co ordinator Shane Chapman. Margaret has been very reliable and more than happy to help out on the cold Wednesday night fixtures. I hope other women are inspired by Margaret’s efforts and consider joining the Umpires group. We are looking for more boundary and goal umpires especially for Saturday mornings U/13’s & U/15’s and these junior grades are ideal for learning the skills required.

Stacey has been an active female soccer player in BH for many years. When Women's football was in its development stages in August 2011 Stacey was one of the keenest trainers said Shingleback President Terry Anderson. Stacey attended all of the early skills sessions run by the Shinglebacks and was one of the first players to sign on for the top of the table undefeated Central Women. 

Stacey has played most of the season for Centrals however a leg injury a few weeks back certainly slowed her down a bit. Stacey has turned to Umpiring to help with her fitness levels and is keen to do boundary umpiring mid week (U/18's) and then play on the Saturday's.

Stacey started out a few weeks back helping with some inter High School games and found she quite liked the concept of Umpiring. In the year 7/8 games I actually did some field umpiring also which gives you a much better grasp of the game I am trying to learn to play.

Stacey said she was enjoying the additional fitness training session on Monday nights for Umpires and the "coin" for running the boundary is a nice little bonus!

Margaret & Stacey are not the first women to help out with the Umpires as Dee Pritchard was a very capable boundary umpire a few years ago and Lisa Bell was also a great goal umpire said Shane Chapman.