My name’s Peter Dye and I am the AFL Sportsready trainee placed at Dandenong Stingrays and my specific role involves indigenous development and participation. I started this role on February 13th 2012.
I’ve just recently been to the Kickstart Future Leaders Camp in Halls Gap at Brambuk Cultural Centre. It’s a camp for Under 15 indigenous boys from Victoria and Tasmania who come to the camp and hopefully get picked for the state carnival on the Gold Coast in April, 2012.
We took 32 boys, 3 from Tasmania and 29 from Victoria and out of that we picked 23 boys who will represent Victoria and Tasmania at the National Carnival. Then from there, 23 boys get picked for the All-Australian Team who will then become known as the Flying Boomerangs.
The camp was great and both the boys and I took a lot out of the camp.We did a whole range of things on the camp including traditional dancing, boomerang throwing, absaling, rock climbing, site visits, we had talks from elders, goal setting and whole range of other activities to help the boys with public speaking and getting more confidence around people they don’t know. On the Saturday night of the camp we camped out on a farm and sat around the camp fire. This was where we learnt the traditional dancing and listened to the elders. This was definitely one of the highlights of the camp for me.
Then on the Sunday we had a match in Ballarat which was a try out for the team. The match was of a very high quality with the boys giving it all they had. The skills from the boys were amazing to watch and some of things they can do on the footy field left me lost for words.
I mentored 5 boys on the camp from over this side of town and here’s a bit about them.
Kasey Mobourne lives in Hampton Park and plays for Narre Warren Magpies. He likes to play full back and rarely gets beaten one on one.
Cory Glass lives in and plays for Chirnside Park and also for Eastern Rangers. He’s not very tall but is lightning fast with a great set of hands and definitely one to look out for in the future.
Angus Walker lives in Box Hill and plays for Surrey Park FC. He’s likes to play at centre half back. He takes a good mark and moves really well for a taller boy.
Nelson Aldridge lives in and plays for Healesville. He played in the ruck and full forward on the camp. He kicked a couple of goals and linked up really well through the centre of the ground when he was in the ruck.
Robert Hunter lives in Lilydale and also plays for Healesville. His favourite position is on the ball and he attacks the ball as hard as anyone. He kicked a couple of goals when he went forward and was one of the better players when he went back also.
They are all really good players who all won premierships last year with their local clubs. All 5 have a really good chance of making the Victoria/Tasmania team and I think a few of them are in with a real good chance to make the Flying Boomerangs team.
The National Kickstart Carnival is on the Gold Coast on April 10th – 13th and I have been selected to go with the boys as an assistant coach of the Victorian squad. It is a great opportunity for me to get the chance to help out with the squad and to be able to coach such great young footballers and people. I’ll get to know the boys even more on the trip which will be great and everyone involved is really looking forward to the carnival. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how our boys went when I get back.
A couple of things I would like to achieve in my role this year is to start up an indigenous Auskick and to bring the AFL back into the community through working with people who may not have experienced our great game before. I would like to run the indigenous Auskick centre out of Doveton College with boys and girls from other schools more than welcome to come along. I’ve been working with AMES which is a migrant education and settlement centre and teaching the students there the rules of Australian Football. It’s great teaching them Australian Football and I believe it’s a great way for them to get involved in their local community. The smiles on their faces are priceless when they master the art of the drop punt, handball or just playing around with the footy in general.
Clayton McCartney was in the Kickstart Program in 2010. He was selected in the Flying Boomerangs team and was able to travel overseas as part of the program. He is now in the AIS program and plays footy for the Dandenong Stingrays. He will be mentoring the 5 boys and I think they will learn a lot from him as he was in the exact same spot they are 2 years ago and has gone on to achieve some great things with his football so far.
Last Modified on 02/04/2012 19:45