By RUSSELL BENNETT AND LACHLAN MOORHEAD
SOME of the biggest names in AFL football sat in stunned silence last week as Beaconsfield’s Bronwyn Owen pulled no punches in describing the reality of youth suicide.
The forum was the annual Bounce of the Ball luncheon at Etihad Stadium’s Medallion Club last Wednesday, and the footy dignitaries in attendance read more like a list of AFL immortals.
Ron Barassi, David Parkin, Robert Walls, Don Scott, Peter Hudson, Peter McKenna, Kevin Bartlett, Stephen Kernahan and Matthew Richardson – to name but a few – sat glued to their seats as Ms Owen, from Narre Warren-based Windermere Child and Family Services, discussed the plight facing youngsters throughout the south-eastern suburbs.
Tickets were sold to the event for those eager to rub shoulders with the game’s greats and all proceeds went straight back to Windermere’s cause. Donations were also made on the day, with the total amount raised from last year’s event sitting at about $60,000.
Local high schools, including St Francis Xavier College, signed on in 2012 to a suicide watch pilot program run through Windermere designed specifically to address the alarming rate of teen suicides throughout the Casey and Cardinia shires.
Ms Owen, now a senior manager at Windermere, designed the school-based program. She has been working in the area of suicide for more than a decade.
She constantly talks with people who she says are in a “scary” place and said suicide prevention was about “being in contact, one on one, face to face” with those people.
“It happens everywhere,” she said simply.
Windermere Chairman, and Casey business owner, Carl Strachan spoke passionately about the need to raise money for children and families “doing it tough” and talked glowingly about Ms Owen and her program, which has been covered by ABC TV’s Four Corners.
Mr Strachan said many people were averse to openly discussing suicide as they viewed it as a taboo topic.
But he said Ms Owen’s program took the opposite approach.
“You do talk about it,” he said.
“You do make people aware of it.”
Ms Owen and her team would visit schools and hold seminars with parents, teaching them how to speak to youngsters in a delicate situation.
“If there was a Brownlow Medal awarded for welfare, she would win it hands down,” Mr Strachan said of Ms Owen.
Those in attendance on Wednesday were treated to an afternoon of laughs at some fascinating stories told by some of the AFL’s biggest names in the lead-in to the first game of the season in Melbourne – Richmond versus Carlton at the MCG.
Tigers CEO Brendon Gale spoke about the state of his club entering into the new season, as did Carlton President Kernahan about his beloved Blues.
Walls and Parkin each gave their tips for the big clash, while the likes of Scott, Hudson, and McKenna gave their opinions on the state of the modern game. Fevola, never one to take a backward step, updated the room on the latest chapter in his football journey – now sharing the some country footy league as fellow controversial former AFL figures Jason Akermanis and Jason Gram.
Richardson, a Windermere ambassador, spoke of the regard in which he held the organisation – specifically Mr Strachan. Richmond legend Kevin Bartlett was the afternoon’s main attraction, humorously regaling the audience with tales of his playing career and telling all who listened just how good Kevin Bartlett was.
But the biggest moment of the afternoon came when footy legend Ron Barassi stepped up to the microphone. The life member of four AFL clubs tipped Sydney for this year’s flag. He spoke about “that tackle” – the one away from the football field that the 77-year-old laid on a would-be bag snatcher on a city street.
“It would have been a free kick,” he admitted.
“It was straight in the back.”
