
Champions of Change: Celebrating Women Coaches in the VAFA
This July, the VAFA proudly joins AFL Victoria in celebrating Women’s Coaching Month, now in its fifth year. The 2025 theme, “Champions of Change,” recognises the powerful role women and
By Thick & Thin + Tackle Your Feelings
Why is mental health important?
Thick & Thin (T&T) is a player led initiative that has been increasing awareness of mental health within the VAFA since 2015. T&T looks to events across the football year to encourage clubs to openly plan and strategize for clubs that are inclusive and proactive in approaching mental health and wellbeing. Community sport plays a major role in maintaining positive mental health for many people.
Tackle Your Feelings (TYF) is a free mental health training program for local footy clubs and coaches that is supporting the VAFA in 2021. The program aims to give coaches the tools to understand, recognise and manage their response to signs of mental ill-health. TYF is a collaboration between the AFL Coaches Association, AFL Players’ Association and Zurich Insurance/Z Zurich Foundation
Through both Thick & Thin and Tackle Your Feelings, the VAFA hope to build capacity within communities, creating multiple connectors to help bring appropriate support to those in need.
Coaches are so influential to the lives of their players, so they are uniquely placed to have a positive impact on the mental health of their players. Players in their own right are leaders, and also have influence on the peers and teammates.
Across two training sessions and a game day, coaches spend a lot of time with players so they are also in a position to be able to recognise and respond to someone if they are experiencing mental ill-health
More information can be obtained by emailing, Sean Walker (VAFA Club Development) [email protected]
The two organisations are joining forces to bring you the biggest and most informative mental health breakfast for all VAFA clubs.
The breakfast event is being hosted at the MCG on Wednesday 28 July and will include:
We welcome all players, officials and supporters of community sport to come along to the breakfast.
Please contact the Thick & Thin team at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Please note that ticket sales will finish on Wednesday, 21 July if not sold out prior. This event is capped at 250 attendees so get in early to avoid disappointment.
This July, the VAFA proudly joins AFL Victoria in celebrating Women’s Coaching Month, now in its fifth year. The 2025 theme, “Champions of Change,” recognises the powerful role women and
The VAFA congratulates Ryder Mantello from Old Ivanhoe Grammarians Football Club who has been nominated as the Round 11 Anytime Fitness Men’s Rising Star. Ryder is ranked 24th for average
The ladder is heating up more every week, with plenty of teams on equal points vying for spots and some only outside the top four on percentage; with each round