On the 9th of May Debby Lovett, the Indigenous Programs Manager at Collingwood Football Club extended an invitation to trainees from the Barrawarn Program to attend the Presidents Club event at the MCG’s Olympic room for the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round.
The reason for the invitation was because the Collingwood Football Club is partnered with AFL Sportsready to deliver the program. The Barrawarn Program helps to create more career pathways and opportunities for indigenous communities through combining study and work placement. There are three Trainees across Victoria and I am in the second year of my Traineeship and completing my Certificate IV in Sports Development at the same time.
On the 29th of May I had to catch the bus from Shepparton at 7:55am that got into Southern Cross at 12pm as it was the only service for the day after arriving in at 12pm and the event not starting until 1:30pm.
I had some lunch and walked down to the MCG to pass the time after I arrived at the MCG I entered through Gate 3 and went up the lift to the 2nd level where I was greeted by the other trainees and Debby Lovett.
We talked a bit before we went into the main hall and found our seats that they had set out for everyone after which they held the Welcome to Country. We then listened to a speech by Eddie McGuire who acknowledged the Traditional owners of the land and spoke about why Sir Doug Nicholls was such a great man and why the round was named after him.
He acknowledged the Barrawarn trainees Dylan Murphy from Bendigo and I shortly after they brought out our meals where we ate and chatted with each other before the game of Collingwood v Western Bulldogs.
As the game begun to commence we were handed tickets to the Olympic Stand Level 2 which had the best view I’ve seen at a football match.
Half time had commenced and we headed back into the Olympic room where Eddie McGuire requested to meet the trainees where he greeted us all individually and we spent some time with us.
And as a gift he gave each of us a 2016 Limited Edition Collingwood indigenous round Jumper which only 300 had been made. We chatted with him about what we had been doing during our traineeships and took a few photos and headed back out to watch the rest of the game.
It was a spectacular game with Western Bulldogs getting up in the last 15 minutes of the last quarter and ran away with the win. I then headed back to Southern Cross Station on which I took a train at 6:30pm back to Shepparton.
It was such an amazing and memberable experience because only once in a lifetime do you get the opportunity to be invited to an event such as this, especially when you are the Presidents special guests.
Kailem Harrison
Barrawarn Program Trainee
AFL Goulburn Murray
Last Modified on 30/09/2016 11:32