Recognising the countless hours

EVERY football club has them. They manage the teams, feed and water the players, wash the uniforms and do the club paperwork.

They clean the rooms, stud the boots, run the canteen and mark the grounds.

On Monday, 11 community football volunteers were treated to lunch with AFL luminaries Kevin Sheedy and Neale Daniher as a small way of saying thanks.

From thousands of volunteers across Victoria, the final 11 were selected after being nominated by family members and footy club associates as part of a competition run by Leader Community Newspapers in partnership with the AFL.

Craigieburn Junior Football Club under-16s coach Greg McCulloch was nominated for the work ethic, commitment and pride he instils in his players. McCulloch is devoted to the side, despite suffering from the effects of long term diabetes, receiving dialysis three times a week while awaiting a kidney transplant.

Twelve months ago, 38-year-old Mark Woolcock required two hip replacements. Through the week he is trainer for the South Marine Football Club under-10s in the Northern Football League, where his three sons play. Every Sunday he is a goal umpire at the match.

Woolcock's wife, who also helps with assistant coaching and training for the side, nominated him for the competition without his knowledge. He initially thought the phone call from Leader Newspapers was a sales pitch.

"We were five minutes from leaving to go to training and I'm like, 'What’s going on here?' and I looked over at [my wife] Leanne and she said, 'Oh yeah, I’ve entered you in a competition'," he said.

"It was fantastic when I heard."

Footy mum Janet Hindson has been team manager of the Eastern League's Waverley Blues for the past 10 years. Before that she spent two years with the juniors in support of her sons' teams.

She's been in charge of property, club secretary, a committee member, prepared the Thursday night after-training meals and run the raffles. Her dedication has spanned two generations, with her grandson now playing for the club's under-nines.

Hampton Rovers juniors secretary Annie Westhead fell into volunteering much like Hindson, filling various roles to assist her kids' teams over the years.

"It takes up a lot of time, but at the end of the day it's just about getting those kids out on the park," Westhead said.

Volunteering was also a way of channelling her nervous energy as a parent.

"I hate not being involved," she said. "I can’t stand back and just watch, I love to be in a role."

Many volunteers start out by helping family members at their clubs. But for Gary Lambert, it was extending the hand of compassion that led to a coaching role with the Middway Cobras for the past eight years.

The club assists people battling drug and alcohol addiction and mental illness, playing in the Berwick RecLink competition mid-week.

"I just enjoy it," Lambert said of his role. "I played and I’ve umpired before as well. I didn’t even know about it (the nomination) until I got a phone call."

As an Essendon supporter, he was rapt to meet Sheedy for the first time.

And the club's former coach said volunteers were the heart and soul of the game.

"They are giving an enormous amount of time and effort out of their life, which always could be – well, first of all to another sport – or just to their own family and their own life in general," Sheedy said.

He said it was important to continue recognising the contributions of volunteers into the future, not just as a one-off acknowledgement for football's 150th year.

"I think 150 years might be just that awakening, that we can sort of build that and build on it," he said.

Ex-Melbourne coach Neale Daniher said growing up playing football in the rural New South Wales town of Ungarie relied solely on the generosity of others.

"The game revolves around volunteers," he said. "Everything at rural community level – they're all volunteers, even your coaches.

"Coaches I was brought up with never got paid anything.

"You needed people to volunteer, and that's not unique to where I started to play footy, but everywhere.

"I can't praise them enough, really, the volunteers that keep our game together."

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Volunteer profiles are featured at leadernews.com.au
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