What a week it has been for our great Club.
As many of you will be aware, Tyrendarra Football Netball Club has been at the centre of
some national conversation recently. We want to take this opportunity to update our members,
players, families and sponsors on how we feel things went, and to share some exciting
commitments we have made for the future.
First and foremost, we want to say: we are incredibly proud of how this Club handled itself.
When the story broke, lesser clubs would have panicked. They would have made a knee-jerk
decision. They would have caved immediately to public pressure without going through a
careful, expert-led, parent-inclusive process first. We did not do that. We stood firm.
We consulted. We took our time. We did things properly. And then, after careful further
reflection and some very important phone calls, we updated our position.
That is what good governance looks like.
Yes, it took a few weeks. Yes, it made national news. Yes, several sponsors rang us. But
the important thing is that we got there. And we got there as a Club. Together.
We would like to address a few things that have been said about us in the media and in the community.
Some people suggested we should have acted sooner. With respect, those people did not go
through the process we went through. They did not sit in the rooms we sat in. They did not
receive the expert advice we received. They did not consult the parents we consulted. It is
very easy to have an opinion when you have not done any of that work. We did the work. We
are very proud of the work. The work ultimately led us to the same conclusion everyone else
reached immediately, but the journey was ours and we feel that counts for something.
Some people also suggested that having a convicted child sex offender at a children's sports
club was, quote, "an obvious problem that required no deliberation." We hear that
feedback. We think it is a little uncharitable to a Committee that gave up many evenings
to deliberate on it.
We would also like to acknowledge our sponsors, who reached out during this period with
their thoughts and concerns. Their passion for child safety was genuinely moving, and we
were very grateful for their engagement. We hope to welcome them back to the Club in due
course. Their feedback, along with feedback from many other sources, was all part of the
rich tapestry of input that helped us reach our final position.
Now, on to the exciting part.
As a direct result of this experience, the Tyrendarra Football Netball Club is proud to
announce a suite of governance improvements that will make us a leader in child safety
across the Hampden Football Netball League. We are thrilled to be doing this. We cannot
believe we get to do this. Here is what we are announcing:
Our exciting new commitments
- We are introducing a binding code of conduct. This is a document that will tell everyone at the Club what the standards are. We are very excited about it. We have asked someone to write it.
- We are strengthening the mandate of our Child Safety Officers. They have been here the whole time and have been doing a wonderful job. We are now going to tell them more specifically what that job is. This is a positive development.
- We are committing to education on respectful relationships and gendered violence. This will be for everyone at the Club. We think it is going to be very popular.
- We are conducting a governance review into how the decision was made. We are conducting this review ourselves. We are very much looking forward to finding out what happened. We will report back to members in due course.
We want to close by saying this: Tyrendarra Football Netball Club has come through this
episode stronger, wiser, and more committed than ever to being a Club that children and
families can be proud of. We are not the same Club we were three weeks ago. We are better.
The process made us better. The expert advice made us better. The sponsors made us better.
The national media coverage, while a little uncomfortable at times, ultimately made us better.
We look forward to seeing you all on the field.
Go the Mighty Tyrendarra.
