The Northern Football Netball League has released a statement regarding Jesse Baird.
The Northern Football Netball League are deeply shocked and saddened to hear recent news reports about one of our former promising league umpires, Jesse Baird.
Baird spent his junior football career at the Diamond Creek Junior Football Club from 2007-2015, also representing the club at Under 19.5’s level.
He commenced umpiring with the NFNL in 2011, and in 2015 was awarded the NFNL’s Most Improved Umpire on his way to officiating the Division 1 senior men’s Grand Final in the same year.
Baird’s tenure as an NFNL umpire led him to making his AFL umpiring debut in 2020.
“Jesse progressed through our umpiring ranks with strong potential after starting his football journey as a player at Diamond Creek where he was involved for over a decade. It was not surprising that he eventually made it through to the AFL umpiring ranks, an achievement that Jesse thoroughly deserved,” NFNL CEO Martin Stillman said.
“The league is providing support to members of our umpire ranks affected by the recent events and our thoughts are with the family and friends of Jesse at this terrible time.”
The NFNL send its condolences to the family of Jesse Baird as well as the family of his partner, Luke Davies.
The NFNL will not be making further comment at this time.
