Lauderdale FC hold fundraising event for Ryan Wiggins following tragic accident
Lauderdale Football Club is holding a special fundraising event to raise funds for footballer Ryan Wiggins following a tragic accident that left him with a spinal injury two weekends ago. LATEST >>
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Heartbreaking double blow for young Hobart family
- ‘Her smile lit up the room’: Tributes flow for young farmer
JOSH McGuinness, the childhood friend and former teammate of injured footballer Ryan Wiggins is clinging to the hope his great mate “Wiggo” can make a recovery and marry his fiancee Michaela Sadkowski.
Now captain of State League club Lauderdale, McGuinness said the response from the football fraternity and wider community had been phenomenal since Wiggins, 26, suffered a serious spinal injury in an off-field accident two weekends ago.
Wiggins is now at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne.
“He’s at the best place in Australia he can be, over there in the spinal ward,” McGuinness said.
“It’s going to be a long process for him. He’s got family and a couple of really good mates with him in Melbourne.
“He’s a fighter, he’s always been a fighter,” he said.
“He’s got everyone behind him and the support the Tasmanian football family and even the Tassie community for ‘Wiggo’ and his family has been tremendous.
“I’d like to thank everyone on behalf of his family, it is absolutely amazing the community come together and support a great young man like ‘Wiggo’.
On Saturday the Lauderdale Football Club is holding a special fundraising event to raise funds for the young builder.
The event will include family fun activities along with raffles, sweeps, and a silent auction to raise as much as possible to help their former clubman.
Down in the Huon, Mr Wiggins’ current club Cygnet will return to the field on Saturday after last weekend’s fixture was postponed to allow players around the competition to come to terms with Mr Wiggins accident.
The GoFundMe set up for Mr Wiggins has now reached over $164,000.
To donate visit gofundme.com/f/help-ryan-on-the-road-to-recovery
Lauderdale open up about Ryan Wiggins’ tragic accident
LAUDERDALE’S first home TSL match since the tragic off field accident to Ryan Wiggins will keep their former teammate at front of mind but the players are in a better headspace to perform, coach Daniel Willing says.
The Bombers were running high on emotion last week against Clarence, a week after learning of the news Wiggins had suffered a near fatal spinal injury.
After starting the game brightly they ran out of gas in a 49-point loss.
There will be plenty of off-field activation for Saturday’s clash at SkyBus Oval against Glenorchy as the club continues to raise funds for the Wiggins family, and Willing is hopeful an opportunity to open up about the incident will help free his players to focus on bringing down the Pies.
“Last week was obviously a really emotional week with what happened with Ryan,” Willing said.
“We had someone come in and speak to us on Monday night, which AFL Tas organised for us, a chaplain from around our area and he was brilliant.
“Just the way he communicated with the boys and the language he used, he opened up some space for us to have some conversations and to the credit of the boys they actually spoke up, which I wasn’t sure whether they were going to do, given how emotional they’d been.
“We were able to get some things out which really benefits us as a group and I think training on Tuesday night was outstanding, whereas training last week was pretty flat, which you could imagine it would be.
“I think they’re probably in a little bit better headspace moving into this week so that’s good and hopefully with the day we’re going to have at the club we can go out and represent our club really well and have a good game for Ryan.
“It’s an important day for Ryan and his family and we’re there to make sure that we get as much support and try and get as many people to the game as we as we possibly can.
Emotion aside, Willing feels his side is slowly building some momentum after a torrid first season at the helm.
And he has put the heat on some of his younger players to start stepping to the plate to help build consistency.
“Over the last four or five weeks we’ve played some OK footy, at different stages, we just haven’t been able to do it consistently over four quarters.
“We need to be better for longer and we’ve probably this week put a bit of pressure on the younger players in our group, they were pretty poor last week.
“We probably use that – not so much as an excuse – but a reason we have underperformed this year but there comes a stage where they have to stand up and support the older players.
“They’ve got five games to prove themselves as TSL players as move into the pre-season.”
Emotional day for Ryan Wiggins’ former teammates
IT was a roller-coaster of emotions for Ryan Wiggins’ friends, former teammates and club mates at State League football club Lauderdale on Saturday as they played through the emotional pain against arch enemy Clarence.
The battle “Wiggo” has on his hands after suffering a near-fatal spinal injury in a social accident last weekend touched all at Lauderdale, where he played for more than 10 years, his new club Cygnet, the TSL, SFL and wider football family.
Clarence donated all gate takings to Wiggins’ recovery fund, and former Lauderdale teammate Bryce Walsh is organising a golf day fundraiser at Royal Hobart on August 27 in the hope of adding another $20,000 to the kitty.
Wiggins was flown to Melbourne on Friday for specialist surgery at The Austin Hospital.
“Ryan’s been a good friend, especially for a lot of the older boys at the club who have played a decade of football with ‘Wiggo’ – so it has been a long week,” Walsh said.
“To go out there today was a big effort, and some of the guys looked a bit tired because of their emotions, but full credit to them for getting out there and having a crack.”
Tears flowed even before the game.
“Tommy Francis, who is Ryan’s first cousin, spoke to the boys before the game,” Walsh said.
“He was very emotional, which spread tears to a few others.
“To see people hurting like that was emotional.
“All we can do is keep him in our thoughts and prayers and hope good things are coming for him going forward.”
‘Doing it for Wiggo’: Former club’s motivation to win
Tassie football player Ryan Wiggins will undergo specialist surgery in Melbourne on Friday that will hopefully allow him to breathe without the assistance of life support.
The 26-year-old has already undergone two major surgeries in Hobart since his tragic and life threatening accident last weekend and is scheduled to undergo a third major surgery which will allow a full diagnosis to be made.
Mr Wiggins was flown to Melbourne’s Austin Hospital on Thursday by a chartered air ambulance while his fiancee Michaela Sadkowski and his mother Annette Wiggins also flew on a commercial flight to be by his side.
While the young builder prepares for surgery that will dictate the rest of his life, Tasmania continues to rally behind Ryan and his family, with his GoFundMe page reaching over $145,000 in donations in less than three days.
The Clarence Football Club announced on Thursday they would be donating all of its gate takings from its clash with arch rivals Lauderdale, with whom Mr Wiggins played with for over 10 years, to aid his recovery.
Clarence coach Jeromey Webberley said his club, and the wider football community, had no hesitation in helping out in any way they could.
“The club is donating the gate takings, which is a really nice gesture. Firstly I think it has been amazing to see the support one from the community but two from the footy community,” Webberley said.
“I saw North Launceston had donated some money, AFL Tasmania, I know the Tigers this weekend are doing some stuff as well, and Glenorchy next week,” he said.
While the SFL have cancelled all games this weekend out of respect for the Cygnet forward, the TSL will forge ahead with round 15.
Gun Lauderdale recruit Allen Christensen said an emotionally charged Lauderdale were desperate to throw their support behind the former Bomber by knocking off arch rival Clarence on Saturday.
While Christensen never played with Wiggins, it hasn’t taken long for the former Geelong and Brisbane star to gain an understanding of his legacy within the Bombers’ four walls.
“It’s been a pretty emotional week for everyone involved,” Christensen said.
“Even for someone like myself or Taine Sookee who have only just got to the club, it’s been really tough and for those guys who have played 140, 150 odd games with Wiggo, it sort of puts everything in perspective a little bit.
“We’ve got a big couple of weeks coming up in terms of supporting the family and that sort of thing and we’re really looking forward to the challenge of this week to play Clarence and get some energy and excitement back into the club because earlier in the week it was sad, and a really emotional place to be.
“At the end of the day, the best thing we can do this weekend is go out and play as well as we can and try and beat Clarence for Ryan and give some sort of happiness to him and his family.
“For some of them, especially those older guys at the club who have grown up with ‘Wiggo’ and spent a lot of time with him, to be able to just turn that switch off for about two and a bit hours and have him in the back of their mind while they’re playing, I think it’s going to be good for them.”
The tragic accident has seen a number of local footy clubs donate towards Ryan’s GoFundMe, with many clubs holding auctions, raffles, and other fundraising efforts to support the cause.
Expert reveals how police catch online child predators
With several Tasmanians sent to prison for child exploitation and grooming crimes recently, a UTAS expert has detailed the lengths that police go to stop young people from being harmed online.
Insurers swamped with claims in wake of wild Tassie weather
Hundreds of Tasmanian property-owners have lodged insurance claims over the past week as they count the cost of storms and flooding.