Trainers the unsung heroes
They are the unsung heroes around football clubs. Trainers. They are there from early in the day preparing players from the Under 16s through to the seniors for their games and tending to injured players on the ground and in the dressing rooms. Rain, hail or shine. The professionalism and the co-operation between trainers from opposing clubs are outstanding.
There were a couple of great examples of that at Drouin on Saturday.
Near the end of the under 16 game that was played in rain and an icy wind Drouin player Josh Lewis went down with a neck injury and developed hypothermia.
Trainers from both clubs, Drouin and Leongatha, took no risks and kept the player as warm as possible until an ambulance arrived quite promptly, within about 15 minutes of being called.
The good news on Saturday night was that Lewis’ condition was fine.
Late in the senior match Leongatha’s Sean Westaway went down in the goal square after a Drouin goal.
He was having convulsions and got first-rate attention from trainers that until he was eventually helped from the ground.
The umpires also deserve credit in both instances.
They quickly called an end to the under 16 game when they realised an ambulance was needed and held up play until Westaway was stabilised and off the ground even though a stretcher wasn’t called for.
The only problem with trainers is that most clubs don’t have enough of them.
Clubs pay for aspiring trainers to undergo professional training and gain official accreditation for the role and no doubt would love to hear from anybody interested in getting involved in a key aspect of football.
Korumburra-Bena football netball club has lodged an appeal against AFL Gippsland’s final report on the restructure of leagues to apply for next season.
The appeal will be heard by a panel convened by AFL Victoria.
The club is objecting to being reinstated in Alberton league after the draft recommendation was that it join the “new” West Gippsland league, a change it had sought.
The re-assignment to Alberton, where it currently plays, followed Inverloch-Kongwak’s successful request to move from Alberton to West Gippsland.
There is also talk that Korumburra-Bena may take legal action if its appeal is unsuccessful.
Not sure how practical that is.
Apart from any claim of “community of interest” to be included in the WGFL it has also been suggested that the club, struggling on the football ground for the past couple of years, was more likely to regain players that have transferred to other clubs, namely Leongatha in Gippsland league.
There are a number of ex-Korumburra players at Leongatha but the reasons are more to do with them challenging themselves in the region’s major league and strongest competition than any community of interest.
Unfortunately the appeal process, that comes after the final report had already been delayed a couple of months as AFL Gippsland tried to get agreement to the changes, will keep other clubs in the proposed West Gippsland and Alberton leagues in “limbo” a bit longer.