Fremantle’s Fans and Community Team recently completed its term three activities, with plenty of programs on offer for young Fremantle fans out in the community.

Take a look below at all the happenings in the community space at Fremantle across term three of the school calendar.

Mercedes College (Tuesday 30 August)
Fremantle's AFLW stars Mim Strom, Aine Tighe, Dana East and Nikki Gore were invited to take part in the Mercedes College Health and Physical Activity week celebrations taking students through some fun footy challenges and answering questions about life as an AFLW player. 

Over 600 students were involved in the event with a huge number of those showing an interest in AFLW, having a go at the challenges and activities in which students learnt about how to get involved in the sport as well as what it takes to play at the elite level.  The feedback from students and staff was really positive with organiser Hailey Wyatt sending the following message to thank Fremantle's Fans & Community Team for attending:

Penrhos College (Tuesday 23 August)
The Club visited Penrhos College to take their year eight students through an AFL skills session as part of their Physical Education and Health curriculum.  AFLW players Tighe, Strom, East, Gore, Mikayla Hyde, Madi Scanlon and Orlagh Lally were all on hand to offer some coaching and advice to the 120 students involved in the session.

Recent draftee Scanlon also spoke to the students about how she first became involved in AFL when she was a similar age thanks to the encouragement of one of her high school teachers.  The girls really enjoyed the session as they got the opportunity to learn from AFLW stars and hear about what it is like to play AFL at the top level. 

We Are Freo
Term 3 saw sixteen classes from six different schools involved in Fremantle's We Are Freo program with over 400 students engaging with the program for the first time and experiencing the fun and enjoyment of AFL.  The program gave students the opportunity to learn all about AFL, the Fremantle Dockers Football Club, our AFL and AFLW players and practice their footy skills in a fun and engaging environment. 

The students also got to experience hands on coaching from many of our AFLW stars with eight of our current players involved in the delivery of the program across the term.  Term four will see the culmination of the program with our We Are Freo Gala Day to be held at our HQ in Cockburn where participants from across the city will come together in a cultural celebration and football carnival.   

Let’s Go Freo
Fremantle delivered their updated Let’s Go Freo program for the first time this term with primary schools utilising new digital resources to teach important lessons around healthy eating, physical activity and wellbeing to students in years two and three. The program is built around three key lessons; Let’s Be Healthy, Let’s Be Active and Let’s Be Well with teachers receiving a variety of digital content including interactive classroom presentations, videos and animations of our AFLW players, as well as lesson plans and worksheets to support them in the delivery of the lessons.  Each school finished off the program with a visit from some of our AFLW players to recap on some of the key learnings from the program and be active by practicing some footy skills. 

Over the course of Term 3 the program saw twelve classes and over 350 students complete the learnings in the metro area, with the Club receiving some wonderful feedback from the schools involved;

 ‘Can I say thank you for your visit yesterday and bringing along the players with you.  Our students loved it and all the parents were very impressed also! All the players were amazing with the kids and so engaging. ‘This program is easy to follow, supports our Health curriculum and using the players makes it relative, real and relatable. It’s fantastic! We look forward to more visits in the future! The Let’s Go Freo Program is a winner!’
- Wembley PS

‘The Let’s Go Freo program was fantastic! It covered lots of important Health concepts, was very easy to follow and kept Year Two students very engaged throughout! Overall an excellent program.’
- St Denis School

‘I can see lots of work and effort has gone into this program. The students loved the videos and were very engaged in the lessons. They loved learning about the players and healthy eating.’
- Shorehaven PS

For the next phase of the program we are looking to engage more schools in regional areas of WA to get involved and take part in the program, if you are interested or know a school that may be interested head to our website and register HERE.

Peak Performance
Aspiring female footballers got a taste of life at the elite level last month, through Fremantle’s Peak Performance program. Over 90 participants were involved over the two-day program held at Fremantle’s elite training facility in Cockburn, delivered by several of Fremantle’s AFL Women’s footballers, coaches and staff.  The program comprised of a series of on-field coaching sessions with a focus on fundamental skill development and decision making, as well as a variety of educational sessions around injury prevention, athletic development, nutrition, recovery, mental health and wellbeing and performance psychology.  Participants loved learning first hand from our AFL Women’s players over the course of the program and hearing about their unique journeys and challenges to reach AFLW level.   

Feedback from participants:

‘This program not only allows a player to learn and grow on their footy skills, but also learn about proper recovery, nutrition, mental health and physical aspects. As well as Indigenous culture, AFLW life and more. Overall a very good program for all.’
- Kaiya Paull

‘This program educates girls who aspire to play AFLW about what it’s like to be an AFLW player. An insight of how they train, what they eat, how they prepare and recover, and even how they ended up playing AFLW. It is fun and informative and a great experience for any girl with an AFLW dream.’
- Mia Russo

‘This program is a fantastic insight into AFLW for girls who are aiming for a footy career path. The program is so well run & we love that the players & coaches participate & give the girls such a realistic taste of what it takes to be the best.’
- Hallie Robinson

‘The Peak Performance Program gives an amazing insight into how AFLW players live and train. I loved the program so much and would recommend to any female footy player. Getting such an insight makes me super excited about the professionalism that awaits if I make it to the highest level.’
- Riley Fisher

Kulkurriya Community School Visit
A group of students from Kulkurriya Community School in the Kimberley travelled nearly 2,400km for the opportunity to come and visit our Club for a once in a lifetime experience. The highest attending senior students were rewarded for their efforts with a unique Fremantle Football Club experience.  The students engaged in a series of sessions with Past Player Roger Hayden and AFL Women’s players Strom, Hyde, Tighe and Jess Low. The students got to learn about the strong Indigenous culture and history of the Club and showcase their own footy skills with a fun and engaging practical session on Victor George Kailis Oval. The students also heard from Michael Walters who invited them along to watch the RAC Derby to cap off a wonderful couple of days for the students.

Goals aHead
Fremantle Football Club’s Purple Hands Foundation has partnered with Youth Focus and Zero2Hero to deliver a mental health program specifically designed for secondary school students. Fremantle past player Roger Hayden and AFL Women’s player Aine Tighe helped deliver the program at Fremantle College in Term 3 to students across years seven and eight. The focus of the program is to de-stigmatise mental health issues for young people and increase the level of mental health literacy across the community. To use sport to link physical activity and community connection for increased health and mental wellbeing and to connect with young people in a manner that is authentic and real, allowing young people to understand their needs and how to ask for help.

Freo Footprints
Freo Footprints will conclude the Term 3 program with record registrations of 159. AFLW players Aine Tighe, Strom, East, Low, Gore, and Scanlon have facilitated the program across the four venues, bringing a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the seven weeks of sessions. Promotion is underway for Term 4 registrations with this ever-growing program, including the addition of a new venue located at Serpentine Jarrahdale, resulting in the expansion to a fifth location and the program now being conducted over five mornings per week.

AFLW Curtain Raisers
The Fans & Community team have introduced curtain raiser activations at each of the two AFLW home games so far in 2022. A new initiative this year, the curtain raisers were introduced to provide opportunities for participants involved in current Club programs to play on Fremantle Oval before AFLW home games, whilst boosting awareness and attendance at home games. The Round 2 curtain raiser was played between 60 of Fremantle's NGA 11-13 year old female participants who played modified games against each other members of the NGA academy. In the Round 4 curtain raiser over 30 Freo Footprints participants and their parents participated in a fun skills clinic. Round 6 was played between 30 NGA Female Academy North participants and in Round 8 over 40 Peak Performance participants played a full size scratch match.

Freo Dockers Cup - Finals (Tuesday 28 June)
The Club hosted the Fremantle Dockers Year 10-12 White Division Cup at Victor George Kailis Oval.

An entertaining, back and forth game was played between Wanneroo SHS and Melville SHS ending in Wanneroo winning by a solitary point. AFLW players Strom and Gabby O’Sullivan were on hand to present the Cup and medallions.

WA Police Coaching Program
The 7th WA Police Academy accreditation workshop for 2022 has recently been conducted, with 45 Probationary Constables now possessing an alternative skill set to engage with youth and children in our community. Aside from the 54 graduates participating in the workshop, a further six Youth Police Officers from regional stations also attended the engagement to acquire their accreditation. Such has been the positive feedback from this process that regional police commanders and the State Youth Policing branch have been nominating front line youth policing officers to attend these workshops at the Academy. There will be two further workshops to be conducted in October and November to complete the 2022 program which will result in more than 450 WA Police Probationary Officers being accredited.

Fremantle's Community Coaching Director Cam Shepherd completed a two-day trip to the Kimberley facilitating coaching accreditation and development workshops with 16 front-line officers in Broome and Kununurra. The purpose of this trip is to ensure there is direct alignment with local officers and the schools that are scheduled to attend the Kimberley 9s Carnival in October. This officer-to-school alignment ensures students are not only building relationships with the police officers, but they are also completing the six-week football development program specifically designed to prepare school teams for the 9s carnival on Cable Beach. 

IGGSA All Stars Carnival (Friday 5 August)
The formal announcement of Fremantle's and IGSSA Football's partnership was announced, in conjunction with the support of the annual All-Star Football Carnival between IGSSA, ACC and Schools Sports WA, held at the East Fremantle Oval. AFLW Head Coach Trent Cooper along with AFLW players Hayley Miller and Tighe as well as NGA Manager Wade Spilcker attended the carnival and presented best player and carnival championship awards to the winners on the day.

The next engagement opportunity will be held in early December with all IGSSA school coaches (teaching staff), where Cam Shepherd and the West Australian Football Commission will deliver an extensive coaching workshop to up-skill teachers in the lead up to the 2023 IGSSA Dockers Competition in Term 1.

AFL Women’s Junior Clinic (Tuesday 27 September)
The AFL Women’s Junior clinic was held on Victor George Kailis Oval and attended by over 130 young Freo fans aged between 5-12 years old. The participants were taken through fun skill-based activities with Fremantle's AFLW playing squad - whilst also taking home some signatures and an AFLW merch pack!