Orange Duck

And the winner is…Melbourne. Or is it?

According to Australian Rugby Union Boss John O’Neil it was a vote for common sense, Melbourne has an extraordinary capacity for sport.

Up against South Africa’s Southern Kings bid Melbourne might have looked like an appealing option. But does it really have the capacity for another major sporting club? I don’t think so.

O’Neil is a brilliant sports administrator. You only have to look back at his transformation of Australian Rugby Union in the 90s and Australian Football in 2006 and 2007. He wants to expand the game in Australia and I’m sure he can achieve it. But I’m not sure this is the right way to do it. 

Can the game expand in Melbourne, a city hardly known as a Rugby heartland? The game is not growing any fast in Melbourne than Aussie Rules is in west Sydney. Another dubious decision but by an administration that should know better.

The concern should be whether Victoria, with its 8 AFL clubs, 2 A-League clubs (with the inclusion of Melbourne Heart in 2010/11) and 1 Rugby League club can support another major professional outfit.

It is over three months since I last blogged. Three months is unforgiveable in blogging circles. Frankly I’ve neither had time or energy to post. Instead I have been engrossed in this www.abc.net.au/milduraswanhill

But I have sorted out my time commitments and the Duck is back floating on the pond of sport. Starting with this…a yarn about an old fella called Hassa.

“Any success I have had not only in football but in life I attribute to Norm (Smith)” Hassa Mann

One of the greats of the Melbourne Football Club. I caught up with him in his home town of Merbein last weekend. The township celebrated its Centenary and Hassa featured as one of the invited guests. He was a treat to interview, fighting fit at 69 and still active at the Demons. We talked about his great career, AFL today and the legendary Norm Smith.

This is a copy of an article I another article I have written for the North and West Melbourne News. It will feature in their upcoming July edition. 

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It has been described as a world first; a sporting facility where players will directly engage with the community — an AFL facility free of Poker machines and liquor licenses, a place that will promote education and foster social cohesion. North Melbourne Football Club’s long awaited Arden Street complex, 14 years after it was first mooted, is on schedule and expected to be open by the end of 2009. 

In AFL terms, it’s been a remarkable turn of events. Only 18 months ago with its future in doubt, tilted between Arden Street and the Gold Coast, members, supporters and the North Melbourne community took an emotional and defiant last stand to keep the Kangaroos alive and in Victoria. “Keep north south” and “thrive not just survive” became two of the war cries on that fated afternoon at Dallas Brooks Hall in December 2007.

With relocation to Queensland voted down by the club’s board, the first of those war cries became a formality. The part about thriving not just surviving would be more problematic.   

Yet the club has wasted no time. In early 2008, a new board headed by anti-relocation campaigner, James Brayshaw and freshly appointed chief executive Eugene Arocca, fast tracked a redevelopment of an ageing Arden Street headquarters. 

A feasibility study and community consultation process followed before a revolutionary plan for the club’s new facility was tabled. The new $16 million Arden Street complex would house the administrative quarters, player facilities and most significantly, a space called, ‘The Life and Learning Centre’. 

Midway into last year, the Australian Multicultural Foundation was announced as a partner in the Centre. Several million dollars of local, state and federal funding was stumped up, a private benefactor emerged with a generous outlay and by late February construction began.  

Soon after the bulldozers arrived at Arden Street, a leading educational and community consultant was appointed to further develop the club’s strategic plan for the Centre.

What is now emerging is an establishment that could be the way forward for professional sporting clubs in Australia. 

Together with the Victorian Education Department, the club will develop programs and classes, within the state curriculum structure, that will bring up to 10,000 school students through the doors in its initial year of operation. The traditional AFL model of coaching clinics will be replaced by player lead workshops and classes on leadership, healthy living, multicultural and indigenous issues.

“Getting the kids engaged and active has been at the forefront of our thinking. It’s not enough for them to come here, have a tour and bounce a ball around,” says John Murphy, the club’s Public and Community Relations Officer. 

According to Eugene Arocca, the model is based on English Premier League Club, Blackburn Rovers’ Community Trust. Providing relevant, real life learning opportunities for young people has been successful for the English club and the local community there. Arocca believes North Melbourne Football Club’s facility could go even further: 

“We’ll have our players actively involved in the implementing of these programs. Taking classes and working with school students,” he says. 

According to John Murphy, the players, particularly the leadership group, have welcomed the opportunity.

“Everyone has said ‘I’ll get involved’. It’s been incredibly encouraging,” he says. 

It’s a situation he is enthused by, “For them this is an excellent opportunity to do something positive, to genuinely put something back into the community. Also with the view to developing skills that will last with them beyond footy,” he says. 

The club and centre will also enhance educational opportunities in the area by housing a program of after-hours homework classes for local young people. In particular, the program will aim at tapping into the surrounding areas migrant and refugee communities. Adult learning groups will have access to English language lessons and sessions on health and well-being. The classes will be supported through qualified tutors, teaching aides and volunteers and existing services in the North Melbourne area. 

According to John Murphy, “We’re here to stay. We wanted to create something sustainable and lasting for the North Melbourne community.”

A facility without gaming machines and liquor licenses has created new opportunities for community life in Melbourne’s inner north. The club’s meeting rooms, theatrette and indoor sports stadium will be available to local community groups according to Arocca. “When the club is not using those areas they will be there for groups to use free of charge.”

With a full-time Centre manager still to be appointed, funding to be finalised, partnerships with schools to be formed and a strategic plan to be established, there is still much to be done at Arden Street. The events of 2009 haven’t helped the Club’s board and administration efforts to re-establish the club either. Disappointing on-field results, continued media speculation about the club’s finances and the embarrassing release of the now infamous rubber chicken video has frustrated efforts to improve the brand of the North Melbourne Football Club. 

At the time of its public release, Eugene Arocca moved quickly to condemn the video. An episode he describes as a “stupid, childish prank”.   

However he defends the other charges against the club. 

“It is blatantly unfair for those who say we don’t have a business model or plan for the future. They are disrespectful to the club and to the board. They ignore our growth in membership, match attendance and merchandise sales,” he says. 

As for the club’s plans for the future; “If anyone wants proof just go down to Arden Street.” he says.

Arocca is confident the club has the backing of the AFL and its high profile chief executive Andrew Demetriou, especially on the subject of the new Arden Street facility. 

“I think Andrew does support it. Our relationship with him and the AFL generally couldn’t be stronger,” he says. 

How the club will fund the ongoing cost of The Life and Learning Centre remains to be seen. Arocca predicts its cost to be up to $400,000 per annum in its initial stages. He predicts naming rights, other sponsorship and ongoing sources of government funding to comfortably fund the centre’s programs and operations in the long term. 

“Come December we’ll have the funding, the programs will be in place, the facility should be complete and ready to open within the start of the new year,” he says.

When that day comes the club’s symbolic re-establishment in North Melbourne will be complete. Their project of welding AFL football, community and education could in time become the envy and model of other sporting clubs in Australia — and perhaps the Kangaroos will thrive again, not just survive. 

If they do, to make a well-worn football analogy, they will have pulled off a miraculous come-from-behind-victory.

I am a sucker for following international rookies every AFL season. That’s why it’s disappointing to see the withdrawal of Mike Pyke (the Canadian convert) from the Sydney Swans squad for this weekend. 

Pyke showed glimpses of promise in his first game against Richmond (some quality ruck work with good hands and a few big tackles). A week later he followed this up with a sound effort against Geelong. I was banking on his inclusion this week.

But alas, Paul Roos has decided he’ll be returning to the seconds for “more education”. Fearful that being mauled by Dean Cox and co. against the West Coast Eagles could do more harm than good to his development. 

Are they not forgetting this guy is a 25-year-old experienced, elite athlete. Even if he is blown out of the water against Cox would it really undermine his self-belief and confidence? Maybe, but isn’t it worth taking the gamble? If it’s “not an issue of form” (as Roos tells us) who is to say he can’t take on the best ruckman in the league. 

By all accounts the forrest giant has impressed everyone at the club so far. He’s tapped and tackled his way into contention to prove that bringing a former Rugby international with zero AFL experience into the game wasn’t completely fanciful. 

He’s an exciting prospect and I hope we can continue to follow his journey next week.

***

I’m looking forward to watching my beloved Bulldogs back on home soil this weekend. There is nothing better than belting the Demons on a saturday afternoon at the MCG.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, can someone please stop Robert Murphy from writing his thursday column for The Age.  Murph your talents lie elsewhere.

His musings on music, film, popular culture and personal philosophies have been a dead set embarrassment over the years.

However this weeks made for some decent reading. 

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Also can you believe a return to Princes Park is back on the agenda. Surely this is just a bit of a beat up. 

I suspect this is more about North and Carlton putting the squeeze on Docklands management and the AFL over that ridiculous deal they have than anything else.

This is a copy of an article that will feature in the July edition of the North and West Melbourne News. 

I went out there yesterday came home and wrote the article in just a few hours. 

On a bitterly cold autumn afternoon a group of men assemble outside a North Melbourne sports hall waiting to be let inside. They’re young and middle aged, Asian, Caucasian and African. They greet each other with high fives and big smiles. They are here for Street Soccer. A modified version of football designed specifically for the streets.

Today is a two-hour session of skills practice and match play. It is an initiative of the Big Issue, the street magazine for Australia’s homeless and unemployed. 

The session, a weekly ritual, began life five years ago in Fitzroy as an organised program aimed at involving homeless and unemployed men and women. With the imminent creation of a purpose built Street Soccer court (the first of its kind in Melbourne), the program has moved in recent months to the North Melbourne Community Centre — a site directly opposite to its future home on Buncle Street. 

Jarrod Gunn, the Big Issue’s Victorian Coordinator of Street Soccer runs the program, barks out instructions and encourages the players.  

“This is a community of people that these guys can rely on,” he says. 

Most of the players are unemployed and homeless. Many have a mental illness, histories of substance abuse and others have mental and physical disabilities. Some are refugees or are from broken family backgrounds. Most call the inner northern Melbourne homeless shelters “home” whilst others live in the neighbouring flats of North Melbourne and Flemington.  

“I suppose many of the guys might already have a social circle of some sort. Their circle might be a positive influence or it might not. But this is a real positive influence socially,” he says. 

The program attracts most of its new participants through community agencies, shelters and word of mouth amongst existing players. Many have gone on to find long-term housing, jobs and entered further education. Some have gone on to represent Australia internationally at Homeless World Cups. 

Indeed there is substantive proof that Street Soccer is a powerful instigator of life-long change. Research completed by Deakin University in 2006, found that of those who participated in Street Soccer’s 2006 Homeless World Cup had established stable housing and three quarters had rebuilt family relationships following their involvement in the game. 

For those who take part in the North Melbourne program, Street Soccer is a therapeutic tool. 

“It’s a place where they can get active, have structure and have people who will welcome and greet them each week.  For many it means they’re not getting involved in drugs. For others it means they’re not getting bored,” Gunn says. 

As the program’s participants gradually arrive there is a sense of energy in the hall. They dart about as balls go thundering into the back of the nets. A large turnout requires the session to be moved outside to accommodate the excited crowd. 

Dazzler is an example of the enthusiasm showed by the program’s participants. Born in Scotland he grew up with a love for football. From a broken family and with a history of mental illness, the Street Soccer program has brought the game back into his life and been a major positive influence over the past 14 months. Last year he completed a sports trainer’s certificate and volunteered at the 2008 Homeless World Cup at Federation Square as a trainer for the Australian side, the Street Socceroos. 

“We’re all equal here. We’re the same. It doesn’t matter what your background is, your story. This time each week we forget about all that and just have a friendly kick around,” he says in between scanning the field of play.  

For Van, the program is an essential part of his week. Homeless and long-term unemployed, it has renewed his “enjoyment of life”. 

Being active and involved in sport is important for all the players. “I’ve played footy, cricket everything…but I like this the most,” he says.

As a Laos born refugee who arrived in Australia in 1981, Van believes the sense of being a part of something brings him back each week; “I want to be part of a community.”

It’s a sentiment Dazzler shares as he takes a rest on the sidelines. He describes his involvement as religious. In the 14 months since he began attending the program he’s missed just three training sessions. 

“When George (George Halkias, National Coach of the Street Socceroos) heard I missed training last week he sent me a text message the next day to find out if everything was alright,” he says.

“It’s like someone cares for a change. It means a lot”. 

There was little reason to be hopeful when stepping through the gates of Footy Park on Sunday. Adelaide are a notoriously tough side to beat at home (in fact we hadn’t won there in eight years), Shaun Higgins was a late exclusion and lets be honest, the Doggies had played some deplorable footy in previous weeks. 

In our efforts against St Kilda, the West Coast and most bitterly Carlton we had showed an inability to poke anything into our attacking 50. A leaky defence that continually demonstrated some elementary mistakes. There was no fluency in our midfield. We looked and were playing insecure football. 

And it wasn’t the greatest of starts on Sunday either. The Crows, a team that lacks the intensity and creativity of old, managed to get the first goal and began pushing. The reply from the Dogs came and things eventually looked evenly matched by the first break.  

The second quarter was much the same. The good mixed with the bad. The Crows unable to take control of the game let us slip back in front. Adam Cooney and Robert Murphy provided some impetus but Tom Williams struggled again in defence to hold down the very talented Taylor Walker. Will Minson was to my great disappointment no where to be seen. Whilst Nathan Eagleton put doubts about his worth aside with a cracking goal outside of 50 and some terrific defensive work. 

The small and largely quiet Bulldogs contingent were non-committal about a win and so was I. 

The third quarter saw something completely different. It was the kind of football I have waited all season to see. Like watching military jets fly in sequence the Dogs’ midfield and attack applied themselves with order and cohesion. Akermanis, Murphy, Johnson and Hill couldn’t be contained. Minson and Hudson dominated the centre. The Crows looked completely impotent as the boys tore them to shreds. 

Crows supporters hate losing. They hate it even more when it’s at Footy Park. And when it’s a Victorian club. They can’t stand other supporters celebrating or cheering, I was told to “shut up” on a few occasions. It only made me and the rest of the supporters louder. The silence was amazing. There really is nothing like it in AFL football. Even when they began a fourth quarter revival the mood around the ground was still completely muted.

The siren went. Sons of the West, a song so rarely sung in Adelaide, was heard loud and clear. The players came over to the supporters at the end of the game and clapped. High fives were thrown around and even a few hugs. The players looked happy if a little relieved. And so were we.

My absence from these pages over the past month has resulted in a dramatic decline in the fortunes of the Western Bulldogs. Indeed the Doggies have gone from a very positive 3-0 start to the AFL season to starring down the barrel of 3-3.

Not very good and I am going to avoid talking about this for the time being.

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Instead I wanted to return to regular posting on another front. Damir Dokic, not the sanest of individuals. He has apparently threatened to blow up the Australian Embassy in Belgrade. Why?

A few days ago his estranged daughter told Australian media that her father physically abused her for many years. This, she explained, played a large part in her battle with depression, her departure from tennis and her abrupt exit from Australia. The story did the rounds around the world. News got back to Damir and surprise surprise he reveals his anger at these allegations by phoning the Australian Ambassador, threatening to bomb them up and to blow up Jelene’s car with a grenade launcher.

Did he not consider the logic that blowing up his daughter, her car and an Australian embassy might be counter productive?

Ah Damir put the grenade launcher down. We know you’re a peaceful, non-violent soul. It’s OK you don’t have to blow anyone up. We know that Jelena didn’t mean what she said. 

A few posts ago I wrote about the Hewitts. Even they can’t match the Dokic circus.

 It was great to see Jelena’s return at the Australian Open this year. She showed glimpses of her immense potential. And again in  the Fed Cup tie against Switzerland two weeks ago in terrible conditions in  Mildura she once again literally blew her competition away. 

The best thing that has happened to her career has been the departure of Damir. It is doubtful she will ever reach the heights she did six or seven years ago. She could have gone on further then she might not go on a great deal further now, but at least she will have ressected her career and finished things on the kind of note it deserved.

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Back to the Dogs. I am currently packing for Adelaide where I am heading this weekend in the vain hope that we will win against the Crows. Something we haven’t done at Footy Park since Round 11 of 2001. 

Does anyone else find this strange? Only a day after announcing the Gold Coast Football Club would be the 17th team in the AFL when they enter in 2011, Andrew Demetriou turns around and tells Tassie they’ll be next on the list. This was either taken out of context or the Launceston Examiner has been April Fooled. 

This is a proposal he’s been dead set against ever since it started building momentum.

As for Western Sydney. Just the other day he was singing the praises of Bankstown. What has prompted the change of heart?

Less than a week ago the AFL’s chief operations manager, Gillon McLachlan was telling a Senate inquiry that Queensland and New South Wales were the AFL’s priorities. Not Van Diemen’s land. 

I’m looking forward to learning more about Messrs Demetriou’s unprecedented interest.

It’s my great pleasure to introduce to you one of the funniest sites currently on the net. If are familiar with this site then I hope you’ve passed on the word to others. http://www.lleytonandbechewitt.com is either a wicked parody or as I suspect the work of Bec and Lleyton themselves.

The Hewitt’s are basically using the page to defend themselves from New Idea and Bec’s Facebook impersonator. 

But there are other features, like Lleyton answer questions like these:

From Julie:

Do you like cooking and if so what are your favorite foods?

I don’t do a lot of cooking but I do love cooking a BBQ. It’s a great Aussie tradition and one of my favourite meals.”

There are comic Kangeroos, a kid recipe section and an ageing Tony Roach showing us how to volley. 

The jewel in the crown is surely this logo that appears prominently at the top of Lleyton’s section. 

I’ll leave you to do some exploring.

It would be a remiss of me not to share my delight at the Western Bulldogs hammering of Fremantle on Sunday night. Although I did not see the match, thanks to the limited availability of Foxtel in North Melbourne, I did follow it closely on the AFL’s match centre website and 774 ’s commentary. 

I never had any doubts that we would open the season with a win. I didn’t think it would be so emphatic though.

•  Great to see Ryan Griffen show more of that enormous potential and take control of the match early.
• Johnson held goal less but it’s clear having him up forward opens the way for Akermanis, Higgins and every other small medium forward and midfielder. 
• Five goals from Mitch Hahn. Mitch Hahn!
• Adam Conney came through unscathed and appears to be over his groin troubles.

We’ll be returning to Perth to play the West Coast Eagles in fortnight. Hopefully two trips out west so early in the season won’t take its toll.

We play North Melbourne at the G this Sunday. Cannot wait.