2016 AFL Community Camp: Melbourne Football Club
Day 2: Thursday, February 11
‘Heartland’
9am – Community and school visits
After a successful day in the City of Casey and its surrounding area, Melbourne ventures back to its ‘Heartland’ for the second day of the AFL community camp.
Melbourne’s Heartland, recognised by the AFL, consists of three municipalities: Boorondara, Glen Eira and Stonnington.
Boorondara includes the suburbs of Ashburton, Balwyn, Balwyn North, Camberwell, Canterbury, Deepdene, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, Kew and Kew East, and parts of Glen Iris and Surrey Hills. Glen Eira consists of Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, Caulfield, Caulfied East, Caulfield North, Caulfield South, Carnegie, Elsternwick, Gardenvale, Glen Huntly, McKinnon, Murrumbeena, Ormond and parts of Brighton East and St Kilda East. And Stonnington features Armadale, Glen Iris, Kooyong, Malvern and Malvern East, Prahran, Toorak and parts of South Yarra and Windsor.
A water giveaway station on the corner of Glenferrie Road and Winter Street, Malvern has also been set up.
Manager of consumer business and engagement Jane McGough, plus event executive duo Bridget Hanson and Viki Micevska, who have been instrumental in helping bring the day together, oversee this part of the Heartland visit. Dom Tyson and Jack Grimes are the players involved in this activity.
Like the first day of the community camp in Casey, players split into groups, before venturing off to the following schools in the morning: De La Salle College, St Dominic’s Primary School, Armadale Primary School, Malvern Primary School, St Cecilia's Primary School, Stonnington Primary School and The King David School.
Some of the player groups include:
- Dean Terlich, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Matt Jones, Viv Michie, Joel Smith and Josh Wagner
- Jack Trengove, Aaron vandenBerg, Dean Kent, Neville Jetta, Cam Pedersen and Jeff Garlett
- Heritier Lumumba, Lynden Dunn and Mitch King
- Jack Viney, Ben Kennedy, Jesse Hogan, Alex Neal-Bullen and Billy Stretch
- Jack Watts, Sam Frost and Bernie Vince
I head off to Malvern Primary School, where Max Gawn, Max King, Christian Petracca and Sam Weideman are in attendance and conduct a classroom talk. Chris Dawes, Colin Garland, Ben Newton and Jake Spencer are also at the school, but are with other grades.
Gawn is a natural in this setting. The Gawn-King-Petracca-Weideman combination works beautifully.
They feed off each other nicely and the kids listen intently – as proven by their ability to remember several key facts when asked throughout the talk.
Gawn starts by giving an insight into the life of an AFL player.
“We run roughly 40km a week at training and 15km in a game,” he says.
“We have ice baths for about eight minutes at a time and diet is important.
“We love Maccas, KFC, Red Rooster and other fast food, but we don’t eat them – or sometimes as a treat. I start the day with a smoothie, which has egg, brussel sprouts, kale, sweet potato and frozen berries. It’s green with a little bit of purple.”
The ingredients aren’t met with much excitement from the students.
King tells the youngsters about his hearty breakfast, which he’s eating to help him put on size.
“I have four eggs and five rashes of bacon for breakfast. I also have two or three steaks for dinner,” he says.
A few “whoas” are said by the kids.
Petracca likes a coffee for breakfast and Weideman “lots of fruit”.
“Six apples,” the draftee says.
Pre-game meals are discussed next.
Gawn is a spaghetti marinara man, with chocolate and seven bottles of water. Petracca loves his risotto “coming from an Italian background” and he doesn’t eat breakfast, due to nerves, which makes him vomit. Weideman likes two toasted sandwiches and King’s all for the pasta.
The four players speak about their backgrounds.
Gawn talks about growing up in the Heartland at McKinnon, and playing for Ormond.
Weideman tells how he played with Petracca at Eastern Ranges; Petracca talks about his love of basketball as a kid and his friendship with Aussie basketball star Ben Simmons.
“I’ve got evidence too,” he says proudly of his friendship with Simmons.
“I didn’t play cricket as a kid, but I wish I did, because I love it now.”
King says he was “never good at footy until under 18s” and how he grew up in Wagga with Port Adelaide youngster Dougal Howard.
“He’s my cousin,” one youngster says.
King, as quick as a flash, says: “Want to get a coffee later?”
The four Melbourne players all agree teammate Lynden Dunn is the biggest kick in the team, when posed.
When they’re asked who the funniest player in red and blue is, Petracca is adamant it isn’t him.
“I’m not funny. I’m just immature,” which draws plenty of laughs.
Gawn lists Jesse Hogan as his favourite player, after Matthew Richardson was his No.1 man growing up, while Petracca liked Scott Pendlebury. Weideman was a Lance Franklin fan and King was a James Clement man.
The four men are asked if they’re friends with opposition players.
“Gary Ablett … and Gary Ablett snr,” says Petracca.
The quartet is working well with the kids.
Injuries are discussed by the players.
“I’ve had eight operations on my right knee,” Gawn says.
Again, there are a few “whoas”.
It’s nearing the end of the session, but Gawn throws in a few trivia questions and hands out some prizes just before it finishes up.
One of the questions Gawn tosses up is: Which two Melbourne players have won Brownlow Medals since 1990?
The answer of course is the late, great Jim Stynes (1991) and Shane Woewodin (2000). Some assistance is given by a teacher for Woewodin but one youngster quickly answers Stynes.
It’s also school photo day, so the kids soon head out for their snapshots. The players sign a host of autographs on cards, which they leave on the students’ desks.
As the photos are being taken, Gawn, King, Petracca and Weideman, plus Dawes, Garland, Newton and Spencer, gather in the staff room. They wait for a few minutes – Petracca plays barista for his teammates – before they soon head out and sign autographs during recess.
As soon as the players head into the schoolyard, the kids come from everywhere to get their signatures. Even bark and leaves are signed!
Petracca says it’s been a “really good fun” morning.
“The kids always ask really good questions and we offer a bit of an insight into what it takes to become a professional AFL player or sportsman in general,” he says.
“It’s good to give back to the community – especially our Heartland. We have a lot of heritage at our club. We love our club and it’s great to give back to the community.”
From the group Newton spoke to, he was impressed by the number of red and blue fans.
“It’s great being in the Heartland and seeing a lot of Melbourne supporters – you can tell there are a lot more in this area,” he said.
“It was great talking to them and answering their questions about footy.”
12:30pm – Afternoon school visits
After lunch, Melbourne attends several other schools: St Patrick’s Primary School, Murrumbeena Primary School, St Aloysius Primary School, Valkstone Primary School, Caulfield South Primary School, St Paul’s Primary School, Katandra School, Coatesville Primary School and Leibler Yavneh College.
I venture to Murrumbeena Primary School, where Nathan Jones, Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, Jayden Hunt, Christian Salem, Liam Hulett and Mitch White conduct a clinic.
Jones introduces the players to the students in the basketball court, before the kids are underway with some handball drills.
The skipper does a great job with his teammates and the youngsters have a ball.
For Jones, he’s conducted plenty of clinics in his time. And he always gets some enjoyment from the sessions – usually when teammates are involved.
“It’s pretty funny hanging out with Clayton Oliver to be honest,” he says with a laugh.
“Overall it’s good to be out here. I’m experienced, but we have a pretty young group of players today. It’s pretty fun seeing them interact with all of the young kids and they get taken out of their comfort zone.
“It won’t be long before [my daughter] Bobbi’s at school. I’m sure there will be some more kids along the way and Bobbi is growing up so fast, so it’s good. I’ve got a fair bit more patience than I used to – that’s for sure.”
Oliver, who hails from Echuca and more recently Mooroopna in country Victoria, says the day has been a good experience.
“We started off at De La Salle this morning, with the grades four and five kids and then some year 10s. They really got into it. We’ve had fun in the basketball court,” he says.
“Yesterday we went out to a primary school in Casey, which was pretty exciting. The kids [there] enjoyed it and they were really good. After that we went to Sweeney Reserve and had a bit of a family day out there, which we really enjoyed too and so was Murrumbeena Primary School, which has been really good.
“When I was in about grade four or five, we had Richmond and Western Bulldogs [visit] and all of the kids enjoyed it. I was pretty excited when they came.”
The No.4 pick in last year’s NAB AFL Draft says his journey into the AFL has been exciting but full on.
“At the start, we were eased into it, so we weren’t really doing much at all, which is really frustrating, but the coaches knew what they were doing, so it’s worked out really well,” he says.
“Just after Christmas, we had the Maroochydore camp and it all picked up from there. It’s been really tough. I was a little bit run down, but it’s all right now.”
For the record, Oliver is already commonly known as ‘Clarry’ around the club – a nickname he’s carried for a while now. It suits him. He’s a personality is young ‘Clarry’ and a very exciting footballer in the making.
“I’d never had a nickname, so it had [always] just been Clayton, but then my assistant coach at the [Murray] Bushrangers was reading the board out and he looked down at the team list. He thought it said ‘Clarence’ instead of Clayton so he said ‘Clarence Oliver’ and it always stuck from there,” he says.
“Then the coach, [former Blue, Roo and Swan] Darren Ogier, who actually does some Casey [Scorpions] development at Melbourne, called me ‘Clarry’ and it’s stuck around ever since.”
2pm – A successful camp
Hanson and Micevska are at Malvern Central in the afternoon, along with the McDonald brothers, Tom and Oscar, where the final activity of the camp is held.
They spend the afternoon at Malvern Central, as the club gives away Melbourne branded bottle water, caps and stickers, as it meets and greets supporters.
Finishing up around 4pm, it concludes two exciting days for the club, as it continues to build its brand in the City of Casey and reconnects to its Heartland.
In summing up the camp, Dawes says it’s been a most beneficial two days for the club.
“I’ve been to quite a few community camps and it’s great to see how communities are quite invested their own people,” he says.
“We remember what it was like when we were growing up seeing sports stars. It’s a big thrill and I remember I’d be talking about it for months – even if it wasn’t from the team I barracked for. You get a real kick out of meeting them.
“I think community camps every year get better and better, so they can actually maximise in enabling us to interact with kids and adults alike.”
Jones says it was great to connect with the red and blue supporters in the Heartland.
“It’s been terrific. We were at De La Salle this morning and then Murrumbeena Primary School this afternoon, which I found out, was Robbie Flower’s old school,” he says.
“It’s been quite warm today, but the kids have been great. It’s great to come out to the Heartland and have the kids recognise you. There have been a fair few Melbourne supporters or footy fans who know a fair bit about Melbourne.
“It’s great to be back out here in our Heartland.”
And that’s how the club feels.
