The Tamworth Swan's women have been embracing their creative side as they try to stay engaged and fill the void left by the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
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Presently all AFL-activities, including training, are suspended until after May 31.
Recognising the importance of the players' mental well-being as much as their physical health without what is for many of them, as Swans president Josh McKenzie put it "a significant social and physical outlet" the club have devised some initiatives designed to encourage them to stay physically active and, most importantly, stay connected during the shutdown.
They vary from setting up a buddy system, to organising different challenges.
Women's coach Andrew Donohue has set up a competition amongst his charges to send in videos of them doing something footy related with a ball with a prize to be awarded to the best each week.
"We've had some great videos come in. One of the girls was using a horses legs as goalposts," manager Nathalie Joice said.
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Joice also established a leadership group comprising some of the senior players and allocated each of them a couple of players that they are responsible for.
"As part of that responsibility they have little competitions to see who can do the most exercise during the week but also check in on their mental health, because a lot of our girls they work, they have their footy and then that's it," she said.
"And now that footy's been taken away they're missing that aspect of their life."
McKenzie said they are just trying to make sure "people don't fall off the radar" and have "got contacts and support around everybody within the club".
He also spoke about trying to maintain momentum for if they do get a season off the ground.
"We were pretty happy with where we were sitting in the pre-season with both teams," he said.
"To have a fairly big speed hump thrown into us, if we do get a season up and running we want to be able to maintain the momentum that we had built."
