Brian Harrington walked out on to Tarrawingee Recreation Reserve for the senior game against Whorouly last Saturday - it was his 1100th game - quite an achievement.

Our team of umpires thought we should form a little guard of honour and clap him onto the field....and this led to suggest to the clubs that they might like to join in.

Coaches are busy pre-match, but both were happy to participate.

And the players did not just stand there - plenty clapped as Brian walked out.

He did comment that it was "a bit embarrassing" but I think the actions of the two clubs will not be forgotten by him.

After the game, there were a substantial number of players who also came up to Brian and shook his hand and had a bit of a chat. Great stuff.

The other positive aspect was that we had some young boundary umpires at the match - one only doing his second match.

Umpires are like players - we need to learn the skills and gain confidence to perform.

My hope would be that this young umpire recognised what was going on - football at its best.

Well done Tarrawingee and Whorouly football clubs.

Brian has no intention of retiring, so he may be around for his 1200th in the future.

But we do need umpires at the other end of the "experience" scale - we train at Barr Reserve in Wangaratta and at Noreuil Park in Albury on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm. We need field umpires, boundary umpires and goal umpires.

Have a think about it.

We cop the odd heckle and groans of disappointment from players and fans - but we also get to experience things like what happened on Saturday at Tarrawingee.

Paul Delahunty, Border Umpires Group

Bushfire inquiry confirms under-resourcing of CFA

Labor’s chronic underfunding of our Country Fire Authority (CFA) was laid bare at a Parliamentary Inquiry on Friday, with recent government funding announcements falling well short of reversing the damage.

CFA chief executive, Greg Leach, confirmed the organisation was not meeting fleet renewal benchmarks, including the turning over of tankers at 20 years of age and pumpers at 15.

He acknowledged that a $65 million per year investment would be needed just to maintain the current age of the CFA fleet – a far cry from Labor’s recent $10 million per year promise for the next 10 years.

He also revealed there are 802 single-cab tankers in the CFA fleet.

This contradicts earlier Department of Justice and Community Safety evidence that put the figure at 627 during Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings six months ago.

CFA chief officer, Jason Heffernan, admitted to the inquiry that CFA staff shortages led to “some deficiencies” in affected districts.

He confirmed he had formally raised concerns with the Emergency Management Commissioner ahead of the fire season, and issued a “qualified attestation” about the CFA’s readiness ahead of summer due to the staff shortages.

This attestation has not been made public.

He also confirmed unfilled vacancies existed in District 22 at the time of the Longwood fire in January, but could not say how many.

Fire Services Implementation Monitor, Niall Blair, warned the inquiry the vacancies were “leaving vulnerabilities across the state”.

The ageing firefighting fleet will only get older under this government, with volunteers forced to sit in the open air in single-cab trucks – exposed to the smoke, dust and heat – for another decade if Labor win again in November.

Danny O'Brien, Nationals leader and Shadow Minister for Emergency Services