Our guest speakers on December 7 were Maddy Pieper, AFL Participation Co-ordinator and Craig Armstead, AFL Regional General Manager, Central Victoria.
Craig is responsible for the AFL Central region which stretches from Gisborne to Hay, comprising 346 Football teams, 325 Netball teams and Hockey clubs. In all more than 30,000 participants.
His role as an organiser and problem solver runs from finding and allocating playing fields, running academies for the training of coaches, administrators, and players, through to finding and funding uniforms and equipment for junior umpires.
One of his main aims is to encourage and foster club sustainability by supporting players in staying in their area and working to strengthen their clubs.
He operates with 9 staff in Bendigo and 3 in Swan Hill.
Maddy’s role is more a grass roots approach.
Her mantra is Attract, Deliver, Transition, Retain. Starting at Kinder with Junior X (a non-tackle game) and Primary level with AusKick, moving on to Junior football in the clubs, Footy for Fun (a girls only Competition) and by inclusion, Kalliana Special School for instance. This year she dealt with 80 JuniorX kids, 36 AusKick teams and 146 Primary Schools.
Their talk highlighted the efforts of the AFL in funding, resourcing, and supporting the growth and future of the sport in regional Victoria, and we thank them for their time.
- Chris Purton
