The Waverley Blues Football Club and Norwood Junior Football Club are celebrating after winning exclusive opportunities to meet with AFL teams in the past week to get some tactical advice, club culture guidance and leadership mentoring thanks to the Fox Footy Club Rewards program.
The two Eastern Football League clubs are a pick of just a handful of grassroots football clubs to have either attended a coaching seminar hosted by some of the AFL’s top coaching minds or received a personalized tour of a professional football club’s facilities, hosted by that AFL club’s coaching panel.
Fox Footy Club Rewards is an initiative created by Foxtel whereby local football clubs are recognised for the benefits they have delivered to their local communities, be it through fundraising for a charitable cause, broader community development initiatives or helping out a club member in a time of need.
National Ambassador for the program, and ex-St Kilda captain, Danny Frawley, believes it will be the opportunity of a lifetime for each club that is involved to experience the environment, housing the game’s most elite players.
“Local football clubs are the backbone of the community and it is refreshing to see an organisation like Foxtel genuinely investing in their growth and development ,”Frawley said.
“By giving them behind the scenes access of a professional club’s facilities and AFL club coaching staff, the aim will be to have these visiting clubs come away with an understanding of the levels of professionalism, insight into the latest analysis that goes into the game and be witness to the buy-in to the culture that shapes the elite club environment.”
Already the Fox Footy Club Rewards program – a tiered system with Gold, Silver and Bronze award recipients – has seen the Waverley Blues as one of 50 grassroots clubs granted the opportunity to fly to Melbourne and participate in a coaching seminar hosted by three of the most respected coaches in the AFL industry in Alistair Clarkson, Luke Beveridge and Damien Hardwick, as Bronze award winners.
Silver award recipients, Norwood just recently gained exclusive inner sanctum access to the Melbourne Football Club training facilities led by both respective AFL club coaching staff and senior coaches.
Additionally, one lucky football club will soon also be announced as the “Fox Footy Community Club of the Year”, receiving a money can’t-buy-experience where 40 members of their team will be run through an elite training session with the coaching staff and current playing list.
Foxtel’s Executive Director of Sports and Content Partnerships, Ben Buckley, was pleased all successful clubs would be able to receive advice from three Finals bound coaches.
“We’re thrilled that these clubs are able to meet some of the biggest names in football as a result of telling their inspiring stories of assistance for their communities,” said Buckley.
“It’s important to recognise those clubs that go above and beyond to give back to their communities and both Foxtel and Fox Footy are proud to reward these clubs with what they hopefully see as a great opportunity to further grow their clubs.”