Amidst the end of another tumultuous week, it was exciting to see the start of the main AFL season. Such a great reflection of how important it is to retain our key rituals and activities, while players exercise heightened caution through subdued fist pumps and elbow tapping after scoring.
The footy crowds are clearly sorely missed. However, barracking from my living room last night, I reflected that the crowds, like junior footy, will all be back at some stage.
The AFL confirmed this week that the plan is to start our season on
31st May. Games, training and face-to-face events will be paused until then.
They’ve set up a useful Q&A page here for your reference:
https://play.afl/covid-19/faqsWhile physical distancing and careful hygiene are imperative, some of the things that won’t change are our love of footy, commitment to keeping kids active and our strong sense of community and social connection.
Over the coming weeks, here’s what you can expect from our Club.
Firstly, the Board and Committee will continue to meet and prepare for the season. We’ll review our financial position and if we can, also take the opportunity to do some longer term planning to think about how we grow the footprint of our game over time.
Our volunteers remain united in the idea that more and more kids should pick up a footy and get involved, despite this year’s unique roadblocks.
We’ll adopt Zoom for online catch ups which will also be open to coaches and managers to keep in touch with their teams.
We’ll share online resources, tips and hints to help kids keep up their footy skills, fitness and activity levels, especially as we prepare for our kids to potentially spend less time at school over the coming months.
We’d love to hear and see suggestions from you as families discover new and creative ways to do this.
And last but not least, our community spirit – what I love most about our Club – has already been evident through the kick off of our footy tipping comp this week (thanks to the wonderful Christine Ashton). Join up for a laugh if you haven’t already.
Over the coming weeks, I’d challenge all of us to find new ways to connect socially while retaining physical distance. Let’s seek to engage with each other in our love of footy and innovate our community experience.
For eg. how can we reinvent our traditional Mother’s Day pink socks weekend (10th May) to raise money for the Royal North Shore Cancer Clinic if we’re not playing home & away footy?
And what can we do as a Club to support community members in need as a result of the crisis?
The answers aren’t evident yet but I’m certain that if we put our heads together, we’ll work it out and blaze some new trails.
I always say that footy is not just about footy. AFL teaches us important life lessons about leadership, culture, team spirit, tenacity, confidence, physicality, resilience and much more.
It’s times like this that we need to dig deep and draw on these qualities to support each other while we also keep having fun (like the What’s App banter between our coaches & managers or the Pies’ after match club song last night), especially through the challenging times ahead.
Thanks so much for your support, and look forward to keeping in touch.
Take care,
Lindy
Location
acron oval
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