Peter Andriske will umpire his 800th game, 40 years after he started

"Sometimes the comments hurt, particularly for younger ones and we always hear of the struggle to find umpires," he suggested.

Andriske will rack up 800 games when he officiates Henty's home game against Culcairn on Saturday at senior level.

Now, he's certainly not naive enough to think the umpires will be everyone's favourite and actually thinks the football community has improved enormously in its approach to umpires in the last decade.

But he doesn't want a young umpire to not experience the fun he's had over a 40-year career, which started with an under 18 game at Ardlethan in 1981.

"I just love being involved in the game, you have the best seat in the house," he enthused.

"It's the camaraderie, the people you meet, there's a lot of good people out there.

"And you get paid and keep fit.

"You just can't give it up, I've been going to retire since I passed 500 games (laughs)."

The 65-year-old took up umpiring after he suffered a broken jaw and broken arm, in separate games, in his last season of playing.

"As you can understand the boss wasn't overly happy and I was working shift work and he said, 'do you want a career professionally or do you want to be an umpire'?, Andriske explained.

Ironically, he's now employed full-time in umpiring as the head coach and development officer for AFL North East Border.

"Peter is really passionate about umpiring, he drives recruitment and is doing an outstanding job of developing our umpires," umpire operations and projects manager Michael Bocquet praised.

He's also the poster boy for perseverance after being told once, 'as long as your backside points to the ground, you will never umpire senior Ovens and Murray football'.

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