Children given a sporting chance
This article first appeared in the Canberra Times
By Ian Warden
Although nothing could wipe the brave, defiant smirk off the face of Tackle Tommy, you could tell he was feeling the pain as schoolgirl after schoolgirl crash-tackled him to the turf of the Deakin playing fields.
The first Disability Multi-Sport Gala Day was held on Wednesday with 150 ACT children from eight schools having enormous fun, in sparkling weather, as they had a go at a range of skills required in three sports. AFL NSW/ACT in partnership with ACT Cricket and Touch Football ACT arranged the day for children living with disabilities.
For example Tackle Tommy (the coach told everyone that was the inflated dummy’s name) was taking his terrible bruising as children were shown the sorts of manly tackles encouraged in Australian rules football.
The girls being encouraged to take their turns at hammering Tommy were slow to really fling themselves into it (it’s not usually a thing girls are encouraged to do).
”Can someone tell me how to tackle? Does anybody know?” the tackling coach asked the girls, without attracting a single volunteer. For the first few minutes Tommy seemed to scoff at their girly attempts to hurt him as they flounced up and gave him slaps.
”Pretend he’s your brother!” a supervisor encouraged one little girl after the child’s far-too-gentle encounter with the smug rubber adversary.
And, little by little, the girls’ inhibitions were shed and soon (perhaps now imagining Tommy as their irritating brothers) they got in touch with their inner-Boadiceas and really began to smash him. One, holding him down, jabbed a finger at him and rejoiced ”Dead! Dead! Dead!”
One tackle, by the fearless Angela, was so steamrollering that one didn’t expect Tommy to bob back up again. ”Angela! That’s the tackle of the day!” the coach congratulated her and we all agreed, as, slowly this time, Tommy got back on his feet, his smirk intact but his eyes showing fear now.
”See, I told you I could do it!” one girl rejoiced after giving Tommy his 100th flattening. ”I’m proud of you!” a grown-up rejoiced, on a day on which everyone taking part in everything was being given warm and fabulous support for whatever they did.
For example, one of many boys bowling a tennis ball at the cricket stumps was congratulated by a supervisor who told him, ”You should be playing for Australia!” after his unplayable googly grazed the stumps.
Some of us, as well as being sincere in our congratulations, perhaps had the subconscious conviction that the boy should literally be playing for Australia given the form of our Ashes squad.
Cameron James, supervisor-in-chief on Wednesday (he had the only megaphone but like lots of supervisors wore an orange ensemble echoing the attractively tangerine strip of our GWS Giants) said ”We decided to create a play day with some different sports.”
”So there’s AFL, touch footy and cricket. We’re creating an opportunity for kids to have a play and try something they might not normally do. It’s going well. It’s a fantastic day. For a first-time event we’ve got 150 kids from eight schools and it’s a great result. Potentially it’s going to be an annual event, and after this start we hope we can next time get more schools involved and have more sports.”
Tackle Tommy was within earshot of this conversation and one could almost swear he winced at the news that he was going to have to front up for more punishment in 2014.
