The AFL Sports Ready Trainees on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane North offices switched places on Monday October 15 to experience a week working in another region.
The two Brisbane North boys, Ryan Bowden and Lewis Edwards, trekked up to the Sunshine Coast for the week to experience the differences between the regions.
AFL Sunshine Coast Development Officer, Rohan Briggs enjoyed the week with the new trainees and believes it was a valuable experience for everyone in the office.
“It was great to have Ryan and Lewis up from Brisbane North as things do run a lot differently in each region especially out in the field delivering NAB AFL Auskick’s, in-school programs and other AFL competitions,” Briggs said.
“The Sunshine Coast NAB AFL Auskick Centres are spread far and wide so I think it was a bit of an eye opener for the boys to see how far we travel on a daily basis to get around all of the schools in the region.”
Ryan and Lewis delivered NAB AFL Auskick’s, Active After-School Care Programs and umpired school based competitions throughout the week getting a taste of the Coast’s AFL enthusiasm and became valuable members of the AFL Sunshine Coast team.
“The Sunshine Coast has been a fun experience, working with a great bunch of people who all work together to get the job done,” Ryan said.
“There is a lot of travelling but everything is turned into a game and an enjoyable experience by the staff while still performing their task at hand to a quality standard.”
Lewis also enjoyed his time on the Sunshine Coast getting to know the office and the region’s participants.
“It has been great…the lifestyle in general is a lot less hectic compared to Brisbane North and the travel is a lot easier with the open roads,” Lewis said.
“It has been an enjoyable experience and the ‘chilled-out’ lifestyle is definitely a plus.”
The two Sunshine Coast trainees, Alex Bateman and Sheldon Judd (Juddy) spent the week working from Zilmere at the Brisbane North Office.
The two Suncoast boys learnt about how the Brisbane North Office ran and organised programs differently to the Sunshine Coast.
“It was interesting to see the way that they teach the basic skills of AFL, during both NAB AFL Auskick and Sport Education Programs, ‘train tracks’ were used to practice the skill,” Alex said.
“There was plenty to do around the office and Juddy and I even had the opportunity to put together the training program for the Brisbane North Future Stars Program, which was great to be given the responsibility of running a session.”
Juddy enjoyed the experience of working under another AFL Queensland Development Officer in James ‘Nello’ Neils.
“Nello took me under his wing and showed me some new ideas in every aspect of working within AFL Queensland,” Juddy said.
“He was a really good role model to have for the week and Angus Armstrong was also a really good mentor throughout the week.
“Working in different schools around the Brisbane North area was an eye opener… spending the week at the Brisbane North office was an amazing experience, working with different people and creating new friendships.”
Brisbane North Development Manager, Brett Fragiacomo said the trainee week exchange was a great initiative with significant benefits for the trainees and office staff.
“It was fantastic to have the Sunny Coast boys in the office and they were really good at what they did in terms of running programs and helping out around the office,” Brett said.
“Getting the trainees to experience different regions is a highly beneficial exercise and was a great way to really stimulate the trainees heading into term four.”
