Program a score for sporting mental health

SPORTS Central’s latest Tackle Your Feelings initiative is set to be seen out with football and netball matches between the Learmonth Lakies and Waubra Kangaroos this weekend.

The teams are set to compete for the Tackle Your Feelings Cup at Learmonth Reserve tomorrow in what will be the culmination of a weeklong endeavour aimed at raising mental health awareness in sporting clubs.

With 12 of the regions 30 clubs having participated so far, Sports Central programs manager Andrew Milligan said the initiative is impacting more clubs each year.

“You can see the work the clubs have done post doing the workshops especially,” he said.

“The clubs have got strategies in place now about how their members can more readily find information to seek help in relation to mental health.

“We know coaches and officials make regular check-ins with their players, and it probably raises attention across the whole supporter base of the club as a whole.”

Tackle Your Feelings has been running since 2019 as a collaboration between the Australian Football League Players Association and the Zurich Foundation.

Delivered each year since 2021 in the Central Highlands by Sports Central, this week’s initiative began with a mental health training workshop with the Learmonth Football Netball Club on Tuesday.

Following this, a Q&A session on the initiative was held with the Waubra Football Netball Club on Thursday, whose members took part in the Tackle Your Feelings workshop last season.

Mr Milligan said it’s important to foster a culture of support around sporting clubs.

“It’s a place where people in the community gather,” he said.

“Whilst they develop friendships and a sense of place there, programs like Tackle Your Feelings take it that step further in terms of how can I have that conversation with someone about their mental health.

“Clubs check in now more than I think they ever did with their members.”

Tomorrow’s games will entail 13 matches each between the football and netball sides with the total-tallying team to take the Cup.

Each match will result in a best on ground and best on court medals given to the top players.