Coutas land dual grants

QUEENSCLIFF Football Netball Club received two separate state government grants in recent weeks to help the club through the pandemic and beyond.

In late May they received a $1,000 community support grant to help with the general running costs for the club as they return to training. On June 4, the club then received $5,700 as one of 37 sporting organisations in Victoria chosen to be part of the Change Our Game Community Activation Grants Program.

The program aims to provide women with more opportunities to participate and lead in sport and recreation.

The funds will go towards events such as come and try days, leadership workshops, and networking and education sessions.

Queenscliff Football Netball Club president Rowan Martin said he believed the grant would be very beneficial to the club.

“We hope to increase the profile of women in leadership roles in the club in addition to what we already have because we have got women doing some fantastic work. But this will allow us to do some training that is specific for women to build their skills, knowledge and confidence to take on those additional roles.”

The club has been eager to secure the grant, having applied for it in previous rounds too.

Bellarine MP Lisa Neville praised the club for looking to deliver change.

“Community sport and recreation clubs play such an important role in uniting our community and driving positive social change.

“I congratulate the Queenscliff Football and Netball Club led by President Rowan Martin in securing this funding.”

The earlier grant is being used by the club to help with the purchase of extra cleaning and sanitiser to keep players safe and minimise the risk of transmission.

Martin said the club had been thorough in planning their return to training, including the decision to start seniors training before juniors.

“What we found was by breaking it into those two stages, we could trial the procedures for that first week with the seniors, who are generally more disciplined as far as social distancing, etcetera. We then adjusted those procedures at the end of the first week. So when the juniors came along and started their training, already the procedures had been worked through once, adjusted, and then refined.”