By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE penny well and truly dropped on the weekend.
In the Doveton footy club rooms on Saturday afternoon more than 100 people, predominately men from both the Pakenham and Doveton teams, sat in complete silence.
Their eyes were transfixed by AFL Respect and Responsibility ambassador and former player Russell Robertson as he delivered the White Ribbon anti-sexism message in a language that everyone understood.
“This is not a token thing to me, this is not an AFL player banging on about something that’s positive in the community,” the former Melbourne player said.
“This is something I’ve been doing for seven or eight years now, something I started doing off my own bat.
“The reason I did it was because I was given the stats from someone that was working in that space.
“I had a think about it and realised that it was shocking.
“I’ve got three sisters and they have to live in a world where they have to walk around sometimes in fear of the male community which is us, us boys, you and me, they’re scared of us.”
Russell’s message was delivered prior to the inaugural seniors White Ribbon match between Doveton and Pakenham, which the Doves ultimately lost by 14 points.
The White Ribbon pre-game function was attended by Victoria Police officers Wayne Viney and Graeme Stanley, Casey Council Challenge Family Violence representative Kim Carter, Cardinia Mayor Graeme Moore, Cardinia councillors George Blenkhorn and Brett Owen, Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan, Labor candidate for Dandenong Gabrielle Williams and Liberal candidate for Bass Brian Paynter.
The “stats” Russell referred to in his speech are no less distressing now than they were eight years ago.
In the past 12 months there have been 7000 reports of family violence in the Division Three area, which encompasses the region from Springvale to Pakenham and out to Cranbourne.
Police figures estimate that this equates to one incident in the area every 70 minutes.
Russell called on the young men in the room to become self-made heroes and point out sexist behaviour whenever it occurs, citing former team mate Clint Bizzell as a prime example.
He said that Bizzell addressed his mates while they were drinking on a footy trip.
“He said why are we doing this? Why are we talking about women like this?
“What we’re doing right now is bulls**t.”
“From that day on we never had another footy trip; he changed our football club with that little thing.
“But it wasn’t a small thing – how hard is it to get up in front of all your mates, in front of all the boys, in front of all your peers and say something like that?
“What he did was he planted a seed in our head.”
Russell’s ability to capture the attention of the young men in the room was not lost on Pakenham Football Club president Steve Moloney, who commended Doveton stalwarts Steve Henwood and Shane Viney for pioneering the White Ribbon initiative at their club.
“You’ve got the readymade audience, they’re hardnosed blokes.
“You’ve got the audience and you’ve got the forum, the guys just went – let’s put it together,” Steve said.
“I was looking at the audience and everyone was absolutely focussed on him so the message was getting across.”
Liberal candidate for Bass Brian Paynter also kept the door well and truly ajar for a potential White Ribbon round in the Casey Cardinia League next year.
“Full credit to Doveton for doing it and for asking Pakenham and what we want to do next year is make this a league initiative so that we do it at a league level where all clubs in this particular round wear white arm bands,” he said.
For more on the White Ribbon cause, visit www.whiteribbon.org.au.
