Country coach great says sidelined players are struggling without footy
A leading Victorian coach says players and communities are struggling to cope without football and has called on the government to get cracking on a return-to-play plan.
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Mental health issues among players will ultimately present more problems than the coronavirus pandemic, a prominent Victorian football coach says.
Brett Henderson is calling on the State Government to get moving on a return-to-play plan for leagues.
He said players in the country were starting to struggle without football.
Henderson is a facilitator with Outside The Locker Room, which runs welfare and education programs for mental health and wellbeing in sporting clubs, schools and workplaces.
He is also an assistant coach at VFL club Williamstown, and a former coach of five country clubs and NAB League team the Bendigo Pioneers.
“There a lot of small country towns really battling without their football,” Henderson said this morning.
“It’s got to the stage where I’ve been getting phone calls in the last week or two from people who are really concerned about some of their own people in smaller communities without football.
“I think the mental health implications are going to be even greater than the COVID pandemic. We’re going to have enormous fallout from this.
“Guys are missing the social interaction, missing not being able to catch up with their mates and missing the game itself. In small communities the football club is the town, and without the football club unfortunately towns haven’t got an outlet and people are really struggling socially.
“Last week it’s been pretty full-on, the phone calls. People are in a bit of trouble. I’m working with country footy clubs but also metro clubs as well, and they’re in a similar position. But there’s more isolation up in the country.’’
Henderson said “the unknown’’ was hurting leagues and clubs, and the government must set out a plan to play, particularly addressing crowds.
He said it was ridiculous there had been no specific mention of community sport in announcements about restrictions.
Three country leagues – Heathcote District, Millewa and Kyabram District – have scrapped their seasons.
Kyabram District declared yesterday that the State Government’s proposed rollout of the easing of social distancing restrictions, the return to full-scale training, contact participation and the ability to host unlimited crowds “fails to fall within a time frame appropriate to conduct a season’’.
“We need to know if footy is going to go ahead, and we need to know basically now,’’ Henderson said.
“In my opinion we can’t go ahead without crowds. The financial impact of no crowds will be too much for any club to bear. We desperately need clarity around crowds and how a season would look for the leagues.’’
Another country football club, Patrick Irwin, of Merbein, has been vocal on social media calling for the government and AFL to make decisions about crowds and starting dates.
He said time was running out for leagues to make a call.
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Victorian Community Sport Minister Ros Spence told Leader that future decisions on changes to restrictions, including about crowds and mass gathering, would be made on advice from the Chief Health Officer.
She said the government understood people loved playing and watching local sport.
“The actions of Victorians in making sacrifices and observing restrictions have helped to save lives and everyone should be proud of what we have been able to achieve.
“We continue to test for coronavirus in large numbers because the more tests we do, the more options we have when it comes to safely moving beyond the restrictions currently in place.”