Couta Care: Queenscliff reflects on mental health recognition

QUEENSCLIFF Football Netball Club officials say several years of work led to the club winning an inaugural Mental Health & Wellbeing Club of the Year Award at the AFL Barwon Awards night.

Queenscliff, led by the club’s outgoing head of wellbeing and culture Sherryn Ross, was awarded the first-time award in October at AFL Barwon’s night of nights.

The award, sponsored by local mental health program provider Read The Play, represents the ongoing mission to bring mental health to the forefront of grassroots sport in the Barwon region.

“It’s been a number of years we’ve strived to really prioritise our club’s mental health, so it was awesome to get some recognition for that work, but we don’t do it for the recognition, it’s because we really want to help the community,” Ms Ross said.

“It’s not about helping the club only either; it’s about helping the whole community.”

Ms Ross credited former club secretary Michelle Conlan with playing a pivotal role of putting proper mental health structures in place four years ago.

The club took steps forward in the concussion space, on top of its annual mental health-themed Hands Up Cup clash with Drysdale at the senior level and a new Needs Supporting coaching program to teach coaches the signs of poor mental health.

Queenscliff began implementing the EyeGuide device this year through a sponsorship with Arcare, to better gauge if players are affected by head knocks.

Read The Play general manager and AFL Barwon commission chair Michelle Gerdtz said other clubs in the running to receive this year’s AFL Barwon award included Colac and St Joseph’s.

“Colac did some really great initiatives in Colac over the past year and St Joseph’s has been a club over the years that has had one of the longest-standing wellbeing committees and has been a part of many initiatives as well such as Tackle Your Feelings.

“Queenscliff has many outwardly-facing initiatives that the public can see from afar, I could see there was a fantastic network of people working together in the space, not just one person working in isolation.

“There was a group of people that were working across the club, juniors, seniors, officials, anyone – I think that was the separating factor when it came down to who we were going to give the award to.”

Coutas netballer and Reach Foundation chief executive officer Louisa Keck will step into Ms Ross’ position of head of wellbeing and culture in 2024

For more on Queenscliff Football Netball Club’s wellbeing program, head to qfnc.com.au/wellbeing