Lauren McGill moves on to umpiring representative cricket

The 19-year-old umpire admits to feeling nervous, and even intimidated, heading into games where she can be umpiring men twice her age.

But McGill takes it in her stride. Her confidence is always building and with it has come more opportunities on the field.

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She's made the step into representative cricket and has two Connolly Cup games under her belt this season. The most recent being the Gunnedah-Peel Valley clash on the weekend.

"It was a nice surprise," McGill said of being called up to umpire the representative matches.

"It was a good opportunity to be exposed to that higher level of cricket.

"I'd never met any of those players before. It was a new challenge and you have to create a relationship quickly and be able to communicate with them."

It's something the umpire shied away from during her first season.

"Last season, I tried not to talk to people unless I had to but this year one of my goals to build a strong relationship with players, especially captains, and then if there are problems I can deal with them straight away," she said.

The 2019 Peel High School graduate is is still contemplating her future - she has just started a forensic psychology course through open universities which could lead to studying a criminology and criminal justice degree.

That could all change but one thing McGill does see in her future is more umpiring.

Along with her Connolly debut, the up-and-comer went to Sydney in November where she umpired women's first and second grade cricket matches.

She made the most of the opportunity, soaking up all the knowledge she could alongside the more experienced umpires while putting her best foot forward.

"It was good to be seen by a few umpires down there and put my name in the mix," she said.