Essendon Football Club Visit – May 29, 2014

On 29 May, there was an exciting buzz at The Couch as representatives from the Essendon Football Club, one of the oldest AFL clubs, were coming to visit us. Upon arriving at The Couch, students were greeted with a very different sight compared to usual. On one side of the room all the tables had been moved to the edge, and on the other side were two handball competition boards. Throughout the whole night, students took turns practicing handballs and trying to outscore each other.

The idea behind these activities is to engage international students with all the excitement of the AFL culture – be it the game, the teams, the players or the interesting conversations one can have about the sport. It’s also about connecting people and empowering communities through sport – Gary Lee, AFL Community Ambassador 2014

Salim Mahazi, the Multicultural Development Officer from Essendon Football Club, came on behalf of GLoBALL, an initiative to introduce the Australian sports of Footy and Cricket to International Students in Australia. As well as bringing the handball boards and footies (footballs) for us to play with, he very generously also brought three other great gifts with him.

Salim and Peter welcome everyone to the event

The first gift was the free yoyos and footies. Perhaps fortunately, the free footies weren't yet inflated, or The Couch may have been destroyed by its sports loving volunteers. However, the yoyos added a great dynamic to the night, bringing back many childhood memories to everyone. It appears that, for some people, playing with a yoyo is like riding a bike, and they were effortlessly flinging them around the room. For others, we embarrassingly had a limp yoyo lying on the ground, waiting for the tiresome chore of being sheepishly rewound.

It was also good to see Ally back at The Couch

The second gift Salim brought, and perhaps the most popular, was the Essendon Football Club mascot, Skeeta Reynolds. He is a red mosquito, and was chosen to be the mascot in honour of the Essendon team from the 1920's called the Mosquito Fleet. This shows just how much history Australian Rules Football has, and why it is so ingrained into the Australian culture. Luckily, just being a mascot, Skeeta didn't bite any of us, but he was an enthusiastic as you would expect an anthropomorphic giant red mosquito to be. He was in high demand as everyone wanted a photo with him. Even our old friend George Thinkbefore wanted to get some handball tips from him.

The final, and greatest, gift Salim brought was that of information. In particular, how to sign up for free match tickets through the GLoBALL website. Salim told us all about the GLoBALL program, and a laptop in the corner was in constant use as people queued to sign up.

As fun as the night was, Salim and Skeeta soon had to say their goodbyes, and let the English class downstairs begin. George then went down to join in Kate's English Class.

Despite the heat building up inside George, the valiant volunteer bringing him to life stayed true to character until the end of the night. Perhaps fearing it may be stolen again, George was sure never to lose his head. Even when his headphones came loose, he let a group of pretty young girls come to his aid to fix them up.

Due to the enduring effort not to let Gary down and shatter the illusion, we cannot show you George unmasked. However, on a totally unrelated point, we can tell you that Eve rocks. It was just a pity she disappointedly disappeared about the same time George arrived, and only came back around the time he left.

We all love you Eve George

It was a great and fun night, and we'd like to extend a great thank you for Salim and Skeeta coming to visit us with such generous gifts. It was truly a fun night, and we hope we’ll see you both at The Couch again soon.

And, if you would like to know more about this night, then please keep out an eye for our next newsletter, which will feature an article on this night with interviews taken by The Couch's new journalist, Cherry! In the meantime, don't forget to go to the GLoBALL website and sign up for your chance to get free tickets to AFL and cricket games.

They were distracted from the interview by Skeeta's entrance

More photos in the photo album.