Victoria Police teams up with AFL, VFL to help recruit 3000 new officers by 2020

VICTORIA Police is targeting young footy players across Melbourne in a bid to fill 3000 vacant spots by 2020.

SOME of Victoria’s best footballers are being earmarked by police as potential recruits.

As part of a concerted push to recruit more than 3000 new officers by 2020, Victoria Police has teamed up with AFL Victoria to encourage players to join the force.

In the past two seasons officers have visited all VFL men’s and women’s clubs to point out the similarities between policing and footy, such as teamwork, leadership, community-mindedness, resilience, commitment, camaraderie and physical fitness.

SAINTS SETTLE IN AT MOORABBIN RESERVE

FORMER AFL COACH DANNY FRAWLEY’S FEARS FOR WOMEN PLAYERS

Critical Incident Response Team Acting Sergeant Kalev Jones, who used to play footy, said training, camaraderie and a team environment were the big similarities he’s found between policing and playing during his 11 years in the force.

“We get an hour every day to conduct some of our own physical training and twice a year we have testing,” he said.

Southern Saints players Alice Ryan and Megan Supple speak with Senior Constable Jesse Mahoney. Picture: Jason Sammon

“Training involves running with our full tactical equipment, we’ll run 500m in three minutes and repeat it twice with a 30-second recovery in between.”

Sgt Jones, who visited Southern Saints VFLW team during training at Moorabbin last week, said if footballers want to continue their healthy lifestyle in a stable job with many different avenues then joining the police is worth considering.

“They wouldn’t be pigeonholed in certain things for the rest of their careers, there are a lot of different areas you can work in within Victoria Police … such as the dog squad, CIRT and the special operations group,” Sgt Jones said.

PE teacher and Southern Saints VFLW player Megan Supple said she hadn’t considered police as a career but a couple of her friends had just gone through the police academy and “they really seemed to enjoy it”.

She said she’d never rule it out and it would be a rewarding and challenging industry to be in.

Anyone interested in joining the force should visit policecareer.vic.gov.au