Phil began umpiring Australian Rules Football (AFL) as a ten-year-old in 1989 in Circular Head and has continued to do so until 2023 when injury prevented his participation on field.

As an umpire, Phil has several achievements under his belt across his 34 years of involvement including having field umpired 300 senior games and six NTFL/NWFL senior grand finals. In 1998 he umpired the national underage championships and in 2001 was a member of the VFL Senior panel.

Phil was inducted into the North West Football League Hall of Fame in 2007, the Circular Head Community & Sports Wall of Fame in 2012 and was awarded life membership of the North West Umpires Association in 2017.

Since 2009, Phil has held several coaching positions with the North West Umpires Association and was awarded the AFL Tasmania Umpire Coach of the Year Award in 2019.

In 2023, Phil fulfilled the role of Field Umpire Coach for the Tasmanian Umpiring Academy which focussed primarily on the development of young, talented umpires, a real passion of his.

Phil is an accredited AFL umpires coach and has ambitions to continue to build his knowledge and connections across high performance environments to ensure Tasmanian umpires have access to the best possible coaching and development opportunities.

In his professional life, Phil has held several leadership roles and is currently the Reconciliation Program Manager for Hearing Australia. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the Tasmania’s wilderness, hiking and camping with his young family.