Senior umpires have been left angered and frustrated after being told by the AFL they would not be able to train at the league-owned Marvel Stadium this week because the ground’s turf was being relaid. In a week dominated by a controversial non-decision in Gold Coast’s nail-biting one-point win over Adelaide, which the AFL has since clarified was the incorrect call, field umpires were unable to train at all. Goal umpires were moved to Scotch College in Hawthorn, where there are no female change rooms and no lights, meaning training has been shifted forward and the only female goal umpire had to wait for the rooms to be vacated before she could get changed and prepare to train. Tensions have been building for years within umpiring ranks over the league’s refusal to offer the cohort a permanent training base, which has resulted in training sessions taking place in a variety of locations, including at local soccer grounds underneath the West Gate Bridge. “The game has been going for 150 years, and yet we never saw fit to provide a permanent base for umpires,” umpires association boss Rob Kerr told this masthead.