I WILL let you in on a little secret.

At any championship game, I can generally tell if there’s been a score a second or two before the majority of people in the ground know.

It is not because I have a time machine or that I come from the future or that I just had laser-eye surgery.

Rather, it is because unless I’m right in line with it, I do not watch the ball when it’s in flight towards goal.

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I watch the umpires.

You come to learn that umpires are quite excitable.

In football, they could be standing there freezing for long periods of time.

When their opportunity to shine comes along, they are going to repay the trust that’s was handed to them in the form of that white coat.

You will notice that is almost always the younger umpire who is on white flag duty.

The only thing younger umpires love more than a summer’s day where they get to wear their pristine short-sleeved shirts and sunglasses is a good, excited run to the flag, like a dog whose owner just got home from work.

If they’re giving it wide, they’ll run a good two or three yards outside the post.

And it will be a slower run, more of a jog.

Sometimes, to build the........

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