Editorial: Club Development & Sustainability Focus

Brett Connell – VAFA CEO

The recent appointment of Sean Walker to the VAFA Club Development role has seen plenty of activity in this space since he began.

Not only have numerous VAFA Clubs taken up the Tackle Your Feelings workshop opportunity, but there have been numerous club visits and also planning meetings with AFL Victoria in relation to how the VAFA CDM and AFL Vic Development roles will complement each other.

The major body of work has been the creation of the Club Development Health Check, the Health Check is designed to identify areas of success and challenge across our VAFA network of clubs within their “off-field” practices.

The data and responses collected from the Health Check will then act as a key evidence base to implement a variety of support opportunities for all VAFA clubs as well as tailor support to individual clubs and its stakeholders.

Our key focus is to identify gaps across clubs and where the VAFA can support and assist, which may take the form of clubs with similar challenges coming together to hear from experts, workshop strategies, share their experiences and tailor solutions which enable clubs to plan for future sustainability.

Part of the support and assistance to be provided will come from external expertise, but there will also be a reliance on seeking VAFA Club “peer” support and assistance to help one another by sharing best practice across key areas of the club business.

The Health Check covers topics such as Governance, Inclusion, Facilities, Coach Development, Recruitment, Marketing, Sponsorship and Finances, all key pillars for club success.

The VAFA has asked each club to submit a single collective response and believe the best environment to complete such questions would be in a setting that allows input from a variety of committee members such as a committee meeting.

Clubs have been requested to complete the survey by Friday July 16 which will then allow us to collate the data and begin planning in relation to how we support clubs with gaps in their operations.

Our goal is to have 70 “healthy” VAFA clubs by the end of 2022, your input, support and buy-in will go a long way in helping us to achieve this goal.

Together we achieve more.

See you at the Footy.