SWAN Hill Football and Netball Club brought a high-profile voice into its drive for club wellbeing this week.
The club hosted a mental health workshop delivered by Tackle Your Feelings (TYF), including an appearance by former AFL player Dylan Buckley, on Wednesday night.
TYF program manager Adam Baldwin was in Swan Hill for the workshop alongside Buckley, the former Carlton and GWS player who is a TYF ambassador.
“We are here on behalf of the Tackle Your Feelings program, which is a community mental health program for local footy clubs,” Baldwin said.
“We are delivering a session for the coaches, committee members and club support staff.
“The aim of the session is to help those people who are leaders within the footy club have conversations with their players.
“It is a national program and last year we delivered to 350 clubs around Australia across 160 workshops,” Baldwin said.
“Over the life of the program, which started in 2019, we have delivered to more than 5000 participants around the country.
“We cover every state and territory and have been out to plenty of regional locations like Swan Hill.”Before the main workshop, Buckley spoke to the Swan Hill players and took questions about his footy career and what he is doing after football.
Buckley played 41 games with the Blues and Giants and in his post-football career has become a podcast identity with Dyl & Friends and List Cloggers both racking up tens of thousands of fans.
“I love being apart of it,” Buckley said.
“I love coming out to rural communities and, as Adam said, the football and netball clubs are such a central hub for country towns.
“If we can spread good messages through these platforms, they really do just spread through the town.
“Swan Hill is such a beautiful place and I have already such a good time tonight.
“By them inviting us down here they are already on a really good track and focusing on important things.
“It’s a real honour to be apart of.”
Buckley has spoken openly on his podcast about his mental health experiences and has enjoyed being a TYF ambassador alongside names such as Alastair Clarkson, Leon Cameron, Nathan Buckley, Kara Antonio and Neville Jetta.
“I think with the podcasting stuff its quite interesting because you are talking into a microphone and you see numbers on a screen that listen to the show,” he said.
“But until you actually get out somewhere like this and you meet people and talk to them and see these faces that have listened to the show and they’ve connected in some way.
“It is really incredible to have these connections with these people that I haven’t met before.”
Baldwin praised the Swan Hill Football Club for their devotion to prioritising mental health education at the club.
“It’s great that the leaders within the club are prioritising this program,” he said.
“It sounds like the club has done a number of mental health initiatives in the past and the fact that they are willing to keep pursuing it is a great testament to the care that they have for their people.”
Swan Hill president Chris Craig-Neal said mental health and wellbeing was a major focus for the club this year.
The club took in a program run by Sport and Life Training and has organised a club wellbeing team who is undergoing training.
