Sergio Rodrigo Villagra (born 11 October 1973) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

goal umpire An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football who adjudicates the game according to the " Laws Of The Game", the official handbook of Australian Rules Football. Umpiring the game of AFL across all leagues (professional, ama ...

who has officiated in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

since 2002.

Early life

Villagra immigrated to Australia with his family from Chile during the

Pinochet regime An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the Presidency of Salvador Allende, democratically elected socialist government of Salv ...

. The family settled in the west of Sydney.

Umpiring

After watching his first

match, between the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...

, in 1995 he developed a fascination with the goal umpires, who at the time wore white hats. In 1999 he decided to become a goal umpire, joining one of his local leagues. By the

2002 AFL season The 2002 AFL season was the 106th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixt ...

he had joined the AFL umpiring panel. In Round 4, 2002 he made his AFL umpiring debut at the

in a match between the

and the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey ...

. As of Round 19 of the

2009 AFL season The 2009 AFL season was the 113th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixt ...

he had umpired in 79 AFL matches. Villagra has twice been awarded the Michael Heinrichs Award for best goal umpire by the New South Wales Australian Football Umpires Association. He has officiated in over 100 senior matches in the

Sydney AFL AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia which has been run since 1903. In 1980 was known as the "Sydney Football League" and renamed the "Sydney AFL" in 1998 before adopting its current name ...

competition.

References

Australian Football League umpires 1973 births Living people Chilean emigrants to Australia Sportspeople from Viña del Mar 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub