Bendigo Umpires Association chairman Jason Seipolt, who was the senior central umpire in charge of the game, stopped play in the final quarter of the game at Gardiner Reserve and asked the Storm fan to leave.

After a short delay the spectator left the ground and play resumed.

Strathfieldsaye president Ray Patterson was tight-lipped about the incident yesterday.

“I can confirm an incident took place and we asked the spectator to leave,” Patterson said.

Seipolt, who has umpired senior football for more than 10 years, said the supporter had constantly abused the umpires throughout the match.

“At three quarter-time we spoke to Ray Patterson and he made an effort to quieten the supporter down,” Seipolt said.

“Ray was very good about it, but in the last quarter the abuse continued from the man so it got to the point where we had to stop the game until the man left Gardiner Reserve.”

Seipolt said abuse hampered the BUA’s retention of umpires.

“Evicting a supporter is not something we want to become standard practice, but we had to make a stand,” he said.

“We have a young list of umpires and they don’t need to be subjected to stuff like that.

“We have six or seven senior umpires under the age of 20 who don’t need to hear some of the stuff we copped on Saturday.

“The last thing we need is for them to throw in their whistles because of abuse.”

Seipolt said the umpiring fraternity expected some vebal abuse, but there was a line that fans couldn’t cross.

“Good-hearted barracking is fine as long as it doesn’t become personally abusive towards a person’s appearance and/or questions their integrity,” Seipolt said.

“Some abuse is okay and you can take it, but when it becomes a vendetta that’s different.”

Seipolt said BFNL crowds were usually well behaved and issues like last Saturday’s were “rare”.

“The league is moving in the right direction in getting families back to the footy,” Seipolt said.

“The BUA and the clubs generally have a high level of appreciation for each other and from what I understand we’re in a better position than some other country footy leagues.”

BFNL chief executive Steven Oliver said the league wouldn’t make an official comment until an official report from the BUA was submitted.