By LIAM TWOMEY
THEY are the biggest club in one of the fastest growing areas of Australia. Plying their trade out of Chirnside Park, the Werribee Football Club is the pride of the Wyndham community.
But with great power comes great responsibility.
As the population in Melbourne’s West continues to expand, the Tigers are at the forefront of promoting Aussie Rules.
While some may be daunted by the task at hand, Werribee is meeting the challenge head on.
“It is a huge challenge,” Tigers’ CEO Mark Penaluna said.
“In the last couple of years we have seen the Tarneit Titans come up, we have seen the Wyndham Suns (form), Werribee Districts have come back to local footy and Manor Lakes have formed.
“You can just see how the game is going to evolve.
“I think the council has got on its long term projects for 15 or 20 new footy grounds to be built over the next five or six years. We want to be across all that.
“We could have taken the soft option and aligned ourselves just with one particular club but we wanted to be a club that supports all footy in the area.”
One of the main focuses for the off-field development team at Werribee is centred on introducing culturally and linguistically diverse groups to AFL football.
The Tigers employ three people to manage the area, by far the most of any VFL club in the competition.
They are led by Werribee community development manager Chris Gallagher, who explained how the club is working with local schools throughout Wyndham.
“We are really big on community development and working with the community as much as we can,” Gallagher said.
“We will go out to 20 schools this year. For the primary school kids, that finishes up with a visit to North Melbourne Football Club and they get to go through their facilities. With the secondary schools, we are going to be running football participation programs aimed at English as a second language schools. We are targeting four schools – MacKillop, Hoppers Crossing, Werribee and Wyndham Central.
“This is the first time we are doing secondary schools.
“We are trying to get people involved with sport. We want to teach them the basic skills and then ultimately try to get them involved at local level.”
One man who has seen the benefits of becoming involved in Aussie Rules first hand is Werribee’s multicultural development officer Majok “Shaggy” Ngong.
Ngong was born in Southern Sudan and moved to Australia in 2005 with his family. Despite having no previous AFL experience, he quickly took to all parts of the game both on and off the field.
As well as playing locally, he also volunteered as an AFL Multicultural Community Ambassador before accepting the role with the Tigers.
Ngong highlighted the contribution Werribee local and North Melbourne AFL-listed player Majak Daw has made encouraging multicultural communities to the game.
Through Werribee’s alignment with the Kangaroos, Daw has been able to play VFL football for the Tigers for the past three years as he continues his development.
“He (Daw) is taking on a big role and every kid is looking at him no matter if they are playing basketball, soccer, football or any other sport,” Ngong said.
“He is the main man who is standing out around the country. You have kids that look up to him and he is a great role model.
“It has been great the way he has carried himself. He knows he has the whole country behind him. He has been a really big influence on the kids to stay motivated and achieve what they want to.”
Despite the good work already completed by Werribee, there are absolutely no plans to slow down any time soon.
And it isn’t just football where the club is showing its community leadership.
Another program the Tigers are running is the Wyndham Sporting Opportunities Project which encourages youth from ethnic or diverse cultural backgrounds to get involved in all sport.
The project also aims to understand the barriers that prevent these groups from playing sport and how they can be alleviated.
AFL Victoria infrastructure and planning manager Ricky Bell applauded the Tigers for their commitment to the Wyndham area.
“To have a state league level team based strategically in the region is really important,” Bell said.
“You not only have the inspirational goal from a playing perspective but just as important is the effort they put into the community in helping to grow the game.
“Whether it is the work they do with Auskick or with multicultural communities to help increase participation … it is very important for the game.”
