CR Journal

Respect is the key. It helps unlock your ability to understand the lived experiences of others around you, to sense and appreciate the pain that comes from being belittled and racially put-down. This has to be genuine effort. Being defensive and combative makes it hard to reach the understandings that matter.

2020 has challenged us in pretty much every way possible. Sporting clubs at all levels and pay grades have most definitely not been immune to this. But now, as the year rushes to its end, it’s worth looking back at everything that has happened and seeing what we can actually learn.

Kindness must exist in sport because sporting clubs are at the heart and soul of Australian communities. Sport has the ability to provide the perfectplatform to facilitate cultural change and our leaders at the forefront needto lead by example.

One of the biggest challenges clubs face in dealing with either of these matters is that everyone usually knows everyone. Then there is the gossip and social media that goes with the territory of people being nosey, taking sides or just weighing in generally because they can.

In the minds of many, doping and match-fixing continue today to be the most concerning areas of sports integrity that threaten Australian sport from grassroots to the elite. Each was considered in-depth in a comprehensive review of Australia’s sports integrity threat environment led by former NSW Supreme Court judge, Justice James Wood AO QC.

This year, sport and activism have been brought together on a scale that is unlike anything many of us have ever seen before. But what can we learn from this moment when it comes to our community clubs? Actually, quite a lot.

First the bushfires, then the ongoing global pandemic and resulting stringent lockdowns – 2020 has not been ‘the year’ for Victorian sport and sport coaches. Sports club communities have been affected emotionally and economically.

18 September 2020: Brian Phelan (BP) and Peter Robinson (Robbo) started working together at Melbourne Storm just over thirteen years ago. Melbourne Storm was in the process of setting up a player wellbeing program and figured the pair were just the right fit.

It is an unsettling time for sport clubs as we start to reimagine how our players will train and if they will play any competitive matches in 2020. It's also the perfect time to think about how our clubs might look when we start back up again.

The lycra-powered energy of Aerobics Oz Style dominated our free-to-air TV’s in the 90’s. A couple of decades on and the craze of home workouts have come back with a vengeance, with brand new ‘motivators’ urging us to flex-and-stretch our way to fitness.