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Sport and Life Training (SALT) gets a lot of calls from local sporting clubs when things have gone wrong.

‘We need a course on respect and equality’ explained the President of this typical suburban footy club. He went on to explain why.

‘Our women’s teams do the warm-ups with our men’s teams at training. One of our young blokes said quite loudly, ‘Why do we have to train with these ****s?’ The Pres explained that they had dealt with it strongly. ‘We suspended him for 4 weeks and during those weeks he had to run the water out to the women’s teams. We need to follow up with some in-club education,’ he explained.

We think that it is important that we are clear on why we exist and why we think our work is so important. There is so much that needs to be done to impact positively on the lives of people, many of which have experienced complex and difficult times over the last few years. 

It’s been a very insecure and rocky road since the beginning of 2020 and mental health issues have been a very natural fallout of the times we’ve been through.

But there are large number of Australians who believe they are coping.  They are working productively (whether at home or at the workplace), looking after their families and loved ones, doing what activities are allowed dependent on the times and generally feeling like they are in control.  They have energy and they aren’t depressed but they may not anticipate anything in the future like they used to do. Describe “languishing” to them and see the understanding dawn in their eyes.

The social isolation experienced by so many club members during the COVID-19 lockdowns, has bought into sharp focus the need for sporting clubs to modify how they operate and to make nurturing the mental wellbeing of their members a centrepiece of their operation

Values, standards, ethics, principles – whatever you call them – are central to building a club that is successful not just on the field, but as community centric organisation that is also trusted with helping young people grow and develop.

It’s important that we all work to empower girls to use their strengths, their skills, their talents to reach their full potential. To encourage them to pursue their goals, follow their dreams and live happy, fulfilled lives. It’s also important that we prepare them for the challenges, and train them to look for alternative routes to success if one pathway gets blocked.

Have you, like I have, been dismayed at the horrendous stories of sexual violence and assault over recent weeks coming from parliament house, Sydney schoolkids and so many other places?

We all know that this behaviour is in no way a reflection of men as a whole, however, fully two thirds of young men in Australia recall being told that a “real man” behaves in a certain way, i.e. self-sufficient, tough, physically attractive, rigidly gendered, risk-taking. 60% feel that society thinks that a bloke that doesn’t fight ‘violence with violence’ is weak.

Think about the men you know.  Chances are they are decent, loving, caring people – and that’s what you like about them. However, the traditional gender stereotypes applied to boys and men is more about being tough, self-sufficient, patriarchal, and even alpha. Most Australians acknowledge the harm this stereotyping does, and many are receptive to changing their language, their expectations and their portrayal of men in this way.  Not trying to stamp out masculinity, but rather moving away from rigid stereotypes and embracing more diverse forms of masculinity.