Hello Rovers Families,
To our HRJ mums, I hope you all enjoyed your Mother’s Day last weekend. It was fantastic to see all the photos shared on social media of the kids with their mums at various games last weekend. While Mother’s Day is a great day of gratitude for many, for others I know that it can be hard for a variety of reasons. Either way, I hope that you were able to enjoy the sunshine on Sunday.
This weekend is the SMJFL Tackle Your Feelings Round. Tackle Your Feelings is a mental health training program for local footy clubs and coaches. There is no denying that 2020 was a particularly challenging time for our youth. Reported incidents of increased anxiety and mental health issues are at an all time high.
The Tackle Your Feelings program is designed to help equip local footy clubs and volunteers with the skills to identify and help those kids that might be experiencing some challenges. Our coaches spend a lot of time with our kids at training and game days. They are great mentors for their teams and provide much guidance. To support our coaches, and in turn our players, we will be participating in this important program from the middle of June. If you’d like to know more about the program, please visit their website.
A few weeks ago, Caggs and I shared with you some concerns we had with some behaviours we had seen from other clubs. To reiterate, I’m proud of the way our players and teams have conducted themselves over the first four rounds of the 2021 season. However, from time to time, we come up against teams or players that don’t play the game in the spirit we expect.
As every HRJ member knows, we pride ourselves on excellent sportsmanship and following the values of passion, teamwork, fun and respect. I remind everyone, if you see or experience behaviour that does not exemplify these values, please speak to your Team Manager. Your Team Manager will be supported to have the right conversations with the right people, and escalate to the HRJ Committee as appropriate. And please also ensure that we are all (parents and players alike) role models of the behaviour that we expect.
I look forward to seeing many of you out at the games this coming Sunday. It looks like our run of sunny Sundays has come to an end. But I know that a bit of rain won’t dampen our spirits. Get out there and have fun.
PASSION TEAMWORK FUN RESPECT
Go Rovers
Rohan Bardwell
Junior President
