Shaun Hampson spent two days in Carlton’s 2013 Australia Post Community Camp. It was a busy two days for all the players with official functions, school and community visits and of course an Auskick Superclinic with budding young footballers from the local area.
Amid all this, Shaun took time out to write a diary for Carlton supporters.
Day 1 – Thursday 7 February
Our first day of Community Camp brought us an early start as we were in at the Club at 7am for a team meeting. Not long after, we loaded up on some eggs, toast, muesli and fruit and boarded the team bus for two-hour trip up to Bendigo.
Travelling on team busses becomes a regular thing as a footballer, especially interstate. Most blokes use the time to sleep (myself included), watch movies or play games on their Smart Phones. Then there’s always the odd player who can’t sit still and wants to let everyone know about it!
Our first stop was the Bendigo Civic Gardens where we were greeted and welcomed by the Mayor of Greater Bendigo, Lisa Ruffell.
After a few quick media commitments for a few of the players, we moved into the Town Hall for the team lunch. Hometown heroes Andrew Walker and, in particular, Andrew Collins became the centre of attention having both grown up and played their footy for the local teams, including the Bendigo Pioneers U/18s.
After lunch, the players were divided into groups to visit local primary schools. Teamed up with Nick Duigan, Aaron Joseph and Rhys O'Keeffe, we headed to Strathfield Primary School and were greeted by the PE class of the very enthusiastic Mr Taylor.
We conducted a question and answer session, where the kids got the opportunity to ask us questions on our lives as footballers, our favourite footballing moments and what types of music we listened to.
Once we were done at Strathfield, we were transported back to Queen Elizabeth Oval, the home of the Bendigo U/18 and VFL teams, where Andrew Collins seemed to be paraded around as a larger-than-life figure.
At the ground, we conducted a Super Clinic for the 300 kids who turned out on the oval. Whilst we were certainly feeling the 35-degree heat, the kids didn’t seemed to mind as they went from station to station, aiming to impress the players with their skills.
I had the job of taking the kids for goal kicking with Dennis Armfield. Between kids as young as five and as old as 12, there were some natural goal sneaks in our midst. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we saw a few of these young guys running around in the AFL in years to come.
Later on, Luke Mitchell, Andrew Walker, Matthew Kreuzer and Dylan Buckley had the opportunity to conduct a stationary skills and Q & A session with the players at the Bendigo Pioneers TAC Cup squad, with players looking to make an impact come AFL Draft day in November later this year.
Following the clinic directly after was a signing session with all the players. All the supporters lined up in a queue that stretched back almost 100 metres. The turnout was fantastic and representative of how much the fans in Bendigo love their footy and love the Carlton Football Club.
This was further personified when we attended the dinner event held at the All Seasons Hotel. Bendigo locals had the opportunity to sit amongst two players at every table (I was with Kane Lucas on my table), whilst being entertained by a few of the players’ answers the MC’s questions. Once again, being the local boy, Andrew Collins was the standout.
All the proceedings at the dinner finished up at about 10pm, not a terribly late night, but given the early start, I was more than happy to see my bed when we got back to the hotel.
Day 2 – Friday 8 January
We were up early again for a 7am training session. The session was very low-intensity and is often referred to ‘touch’ sessions.
During these sessions, the focus is on getting the feel of the footy in the hands and sharpening up on basic foot and hand skills. The sessions typically go on for no longer than about 20 minutes and leave you feeling comfortable about your skills.
We were treated to some breakfast following the sessions, before we were split into groups again to visit two more primary schools around the Bendigo area. All of us set of to the various schools except for Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs who granted the Boyd family’s most memorable wish by visiting them on their farm.
Heath Scotland, Josh Bootsma and Ed Curnow joined me this time as we travelled to St. Liborious Primary School in Eaglehawk in the suburbs of Bendigo.
Just like yesterday we were greeted by an enthusiastic and well-behaved group of kids who asked some great questions about footy skills.
It was up to us to give them some live demonstrations on how to kick drop punts, how to mark the ball in your hands and handballing tips. Following the question and answer session, we signed some autographs and had some photos taken.
Accompanied with Aaron Joseph and Josh, we then visited Lightning Reef Primary School to do some more of the same in the afternoon. With each of the schools that we visited, it was amazing to see how stoked the kids were by having us there.
For regional areas such as Bendigo, many of the kids and supporters wouldn’t be as privileged as residents in Melbourne to catch glimpses of their favourite players. For these kids, to have us spending a significant amount of time talking to them, you could see the excitement and joy in their faces.
To know that your presence does that to people is humbling thing and often reaffirms why you play AFL.
By about 2pm we were back on the bus and heading home to Melbourne. This time, there was not a single person awake as everyone collapsed in their seats and slept the trip away.
I’d like to give many thanks to everyone in Bendigo for their hospitality and particularly to the supporters. Speaking to Andrew Collins, the local boy really enjoyed himself, also getting the chance to introduce his grandfather, Don, who came down during the Super Clinic.
It’s heartening to know there are loyal supporters still backing us even two hours from home. We look to the next time we are back in town!
