Instead she was standing alongside her Bendigo Umpires Association colleague Craig Findlay on a dusty field in Kolkata, taking charge of the grand final at the AFL India National Championships.

Scanning the terraces and sidelines last month at Howrah Maidan Sailen Manna Stadium, a converted soccer field in Kolkata, Shay could see plenty of familiar faces.

"The proudest moment of grand final day is standing there and looking around and knowing that nearly this whole thing is being run by Bendigo," she said.

"You had Craig and I on the field, you had Bruce Claridge and Geoff Scown in the goals, you have Paul Byrne, who was the (former) president of the Bendigo Football Netball League, on the boundary with his son Connor on the other side, and we had Casey Crapper, Leonie Sharp, Irene Lucas and Jan Claridge doing the timekeeping and scoring.

"If it wasn't for Bendigo, you'd almost wonder if these championships would go ahead."

Shay, an umpire for the past nine years, was one of 12 Bendigo community football people in Kolkata for the annual championships, as part of a delegation organised by Golden Square Football Netball Club chaplain Bruce Claridge.

The trip was the third organised by Claridge. The delegation's work went well beyond football, with loads of humanitarian and educational activities undertaken by those on-board.

For Shay and Findlay, that included conducting workshops before the carnival to bring the local umpires and coaches up to speed on the rules of the game.

Each Indian official was presented with a kit containing a uniform donated by the Bendigo Umpires Association, and a whistle supplied by Haven; Home, Safe and AFL Central Victoria, Bendigo Football Netball League and Golden Square Football Netball Club.

Shay said the uniforms in particular had been put to good use.

"I've seen photos on Facebook even now of some of those guys and they are still wearing their umpires shirts," she said.

"I don't think those shirts will make it back out onto a footy field, let alone in 12-months time.

"(The Indian umpires) walked onto the field with us if they wanted to. We have to remember they have a very quiet, reserved culture."

The AFL India Championships bring together senior and under-16 players from India's seven football playing states for eight days to decide a premier.

This year was the fifth instalment of the championships and easily the most high-profile.

That was due largely to the appearance in India of AFL legend and four-time Essendon premiership coach Kevin Sheedy, who led a contingent of Bombers officials seeking to tap into a growing Indian community back in Australia.

Sudip Chakraborty, who is the founder and general secretary of AFL India, is employed by Essendon as a community officer.

While the legend that is Kevin Sheedy was largely foreign to the Indian players, that did not stop the three-time Richmond premiership footballer from having them in awe of him.

"Kevin Sheedy did a really great job, as you’d expect," Shay said.

"He held a coaching session on the first day after the umpires did a presentation to the coaches and he had all 200 players sitting in front of him.

"He was just another bloke to them, most of them didn't know who he was, and I was just in awe saying I couldn't believe these kids have this guy coaching you.

"He was just amazing with the Indian kids."

Sheedy's presence provided a thrill of a lifetime for, among others, 2009 Golden Square premiership forward Callum Sharp and current-day Bulldog Jake Donegan.

The pair were front-and-centre alongside Sheedy as the master coach imparted his infinite football knowledge on the players at a series of coaching clinics.

This year's tour was a chance for the Bendigo crew to take Australian rules to a new audience, with the group organising a match involving the slum kids of Kolkata pitted against the Village kids from one of the outlying areas.

Shay said the game was a world apart even from the national championships.

"You are standing in the middle of a paddock - someone's made a soccer field with bamboo structures for goals," she said.

"They've just dug a hole, maybe 15 centimeters deep and stuck up another piece of bamboo for a point post and had seven play seven with one of our guys on each team.

"No tackling to the ground because it was just dirt, but the kids just had a ball.

"You had to stop and look around and realise where you were. It's a scene that will always stick with me."

Tour leader Bruce Claridge hailed the venture a major success was already looking forward to returning next year.

The sports chaplain said he was heartened to hear Sheedy full of praise for the work Bendigo put in to ensure the success of the championships, not only in 2017, but also in the years past.

"Bendigo should be justly proud of the contribution their team made to the kids of the many poorer communities of India who were represented highly at the championships," he said.

"So many stories and so much joy brought to so many by the Bendigo team."

Opportunities to be a part of the 2018 championships in India will be announced in a couple of months’ time.

For the record, both the senior and junior championships were won by the Jharkhand Crows.