Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with AFL NT CEO Stu Totham

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with AFL NT CEO Stu Totham · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And some wonderful news for the Northern Territory. We add
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: another draft d to the list well after A Shanty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Bush was taken by the Gold Coast Sons in last
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: night's nab afl W draft at number eight. And joining
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: us on the line is Stue Totham, the CEO of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: afl NT. Good morning to you.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Stew good one and Katie, how are you very well?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Mate? Tell us what happened last night?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: A Shandy Bush has got the opportunity that she's dreamed
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of it the Gold Coast, which is terrific and a
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: crific reward for her effort, her training and persistence and
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the top display she put on with the Buffalo's up
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: here through the NTI Thunder Academy and then at Hawthorne
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: in the VFL. So she's been on a bit of
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: a journey and a Shanney gets opportunity of the Gold
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Coast now, which is just terrific.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: How exciting. Now she hails from Beswick, as I understand.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. So she's yeah, she's from a
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: fair way away from a lot of things, I guess,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and to find her way into the AA. So it's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: just terrific. Views and now that these are the sort
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: of stories and pathways that need to be opened up
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: to give more kids opportunities, more young men and women
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: opportunities to play at the top level. So she's a
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: bit of a groundbreaker and we certainly are so proud
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of her and wish her all the best on her
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: AFLW journey which begins now.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Stu, the announcement was in front of a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: group of friends and family at the Michael Long Center,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: including well, you know, members of her community as well
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and afl NT and others. What was the reaction.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: She was super, super proud and proud to represent her
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: family and have those people there, and there were some
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: people that have been along the journey with her as well.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: So just a really nice moment to savor and enjoy.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And I'm sure she's waken up this morning with a
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: few butterflies in the tummy and knowing that you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: there's a lot ahead of a lot of hard work,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and you know it's an exciting challenge for it.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It really is. And you touched on this just a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: moment ago about the development obviously of our players here
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the territory. What's it like for you when you know,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: when you do see one of these young whether it's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a man, a young man or a young woman drafted
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: then into the a f L or the afl W,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it's really exciting.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And we had to see a quick story Katie. We
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: had Richie Fijo a couple of years ago host our
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: staff conference and at the end of the conference he
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: wrapped it up and he said, at AFL N T
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: with the agents of opportunity, and that's how we see it.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: We hopefully provide, you know, we play our role to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: provide the opportunity for these kids to find it to
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the next level. And it's complex. Like a Shane, He's
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: got a lot of people to think, like I said,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: through all of our junior footing, you know, through Dawn
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Buffalo's into the Thunder program Orthord. So there's often a
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: lot of people involved to get these athletes to the
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: top level and everyone should take credit for that because
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it's not that easy to do and it doesn't happen
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: that often, but for us makes us really proud and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: sort of enforceing some of the good stuff that we
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: do and you know, kicks us on to the next one.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: You know, we're super keen to seeing more AFLW players
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: at the top level. We know there's going to be
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: four more teams in the next twelve to eighty months,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: so there's more opportunities to territory girls coming up, that's
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: How wonderful. I just think it's a fantastic story. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: love seeing young territorians, particularly, you know, when they're out
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in remote communities. It will come from those remote communities
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: doing so well. I think it's wonderful stuff. Mate. We've
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: had a bit of a roller coaster when it comes
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to hosting AFL games this season. How are we looking.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Well, we have been a bit of a challenge for
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: the team here, but we've also went through it last year,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: you know, and we had to get us three games
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: in three weeks. And yeah, it's sort of coming towards
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: the end, isn't it, Katie. I think the opportunities are
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: drying up. We still do have a little fleether of
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: hope for a game late in the year, which will
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: keep on top of but yeah, it's running We're running
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: out of time, which is disappointed for the community not
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to have a fully if that's how it works out.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: But you know, again, where it's COVID. Lots of people
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: have been being impacted far more than we are, so
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: we just keep things in perspective, and you know, we've
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: got plenty of things to work on here, kadios. I've
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: said before, we've got an NTFL season that starts in
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: a couple of months, and we will just head down,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: bump up, helping our clubs get ready for that season
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and see how we go and how is everybody looking,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: how the club's looking at this point, just a couple
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: of months out from the AFL season kicking off. Yeah,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: not too bad. We've done a lot of work with
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the clubs and they've done a lot of work. We'll
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: finalize the sixture in the next two or three weeks,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: finalize all the sort of rules and regulations. We've got
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: an INTERFL conference later in August which will go through
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: a few things. So yeah, it's all you know, it's
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of work being done by everyone, and it's
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: all heading in the right direction, and hopefully we get
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: another terrific season of INTERFL. Fully, last year was an
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: absolute rival and we're hoping that we put on you
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: similar show again next season.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Oh no doubt. There will be flying in those players
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: is always sort of a juggle, but I'm anticipating that
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: during COVID times even more so. Is there going to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: be any sort of change to the rules with those
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: flying players at this stage?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's interesting, Katie. We've been talking. We've got
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: a bylaw subcommittee which is made up of our clubs
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and us and we've worked through different rule changes and
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: that gets washed through our presidents and then onto the
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: leadership here at AFLING. So it's a fair process with
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: any rule changes. And yeah, last year we change some
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: rules to allow more players to come up not fly in,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: but driving we call them, so come up here and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: leave them had a massive impact on our competition with
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the quality of player we had here. So you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: we're still going to work through some of those rules.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: But one thing we are focused on is keeping the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: product at a high level, which means some of these
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: talunter players we need to keep coming into our competition
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: enhancing the product. We're also helping our young players develop
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: as well, so we're looking at all of that. I
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: doubt whether we'll see more flyings as such. You know,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: we want that focus on people that are here. It's
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: definitely to stay. We want them to have that real
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: impact on their clubs. So but we're working with our
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: clubs to work through those rules and we'll hopefully have
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: those out in the next few weeks.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Well, Stuarts, I'm always good to catch up with you.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you.