Published in PEPTalk Spring 2020

By Nick Tabart

 

 

 

This could be a story about persistence, consistent and collaborative support, the power of fostering and acknowledging roles in the community.  This could be a story about the indomitable Aussie spirit, about a can-do attitude and fortitude in the face of adversity, the Anzacs playing cricket on the beach…

Yeah … nah, we can leave that hoo-ha to Richard Fidler.

This is a story about FOOTY!

Picture this. It is 2019, a mild December evening in Brighton. The late afternoon sun casts a golden hue over the clubrooms of the Brighton Football Club.  Out on the oval the Brighton Robins men’s pre-season is about to commence.

At 6pm, around 60 players stand hands-on-hips, arms crossed, bouncing footballs, anticipating their first address from the Seniors Coach.  He starts, “Right, good to see so many of you here.  I want to start by introducing Cam Barwick.  Cam is going to be training with you this season and I want you all to make him feel welcome.”

This is the opening bounce for Cameron Barwick’s season with the Brighton Robins.

Cameron’s football journey began as a young tacker, in the ball pit at Calvary Rehabilitation in New Town. Did the therapists at Calvary who decided this course of sensory stimulation would benefit three-year-old Cameron have a vision of him taking part in training drills with a senior’s team 17 years later?  If so, give those star (and prescient) Calvary forwards first go at the showers, because they certainly kicked straight!

For Cameron, his therapy was not to be with any ball.  His elder brother played soccer, but as Rachel, Cameron’s mum says, “Cameron wouldn’t have a bar of it.”  The sight of a football in the hands of a family acquaintance was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. From then on there were always footballs around the house, getting under people’s feet in the lounge room, back yard, kitchen, bathroom – but mostly in Cameron’s grip or at the end of his boot as he spent hours kicking it against the back wall.  When visiting the park, he was immediately drawn toward whatever drop punt or torp action was on offer. Sometimes this ended in tears … for those who thought the ball belonged to them!

By the time he was at Early Learning in Howrah, time outside to kick the footy had become his reward for completing classroom tasks. (Initially Cameron was not popular with the gardener who was disgusted to see footballs landing in neat flower beds, followed by Cameron clambering through to retrieve. Later they became friends and as well as having a kick together, the gardener conscripted Cameron into helping him from which developed another of Cameron’s passions. We’ll return to that later…)

As with any run to the finals, there have been Colliwobbles (the choking phenomenon experienced by the Collingwood Football Club in AFL Grand Finals) to overcome. For some years, caught up in the system, Cameron’s options and outlook were diminished, even bleak. Pronouncements from the tribunal were not going his way. Covid-19 has brought lockdowns to many people, but imagine not knowing an end date, compounded by being without a connection for zoom sessions with friends or the diversions of a streaming service.  For a period of time, this does not even come close to what Cameron lived through.

However, even on the darkest days, with the ground being pelted with sleet, Cameron has had team-mates and supporters barracking him on.  When he ran through a glass door in 2015, badly lacerating his wrist, he and his mother were told by doctors that he would never be able to play footy again.  Rachel can still remember how distraught this made him, but as with any good captain in a melee she came immediately to his aid, bringing a football into the hospital for Cameron to grip and tumble in his hands. Obviously, these doctors had not consulted with the Calvary therapists, because soon Cameron was marking and handballing again.

In his teens, Cameron was introduced to the Claremont seniors team and was soon warming up with the players, joining kicking and handball drills then visiting the rooms for the half-time address, even being invited to join the team in belting out the team song to celebrate a win (much to the delight of his speech therapist). Cameron became well-known around the club to the extent that when walking around Northgate with Cam, Rachel would be surprised by the number of people stopping to say g’day to him.

There have been many others on his team.  Once Cameron was back from injury, key support worker Georgie was, and continues to be, a long term, consistent support, helping with his balance both physical and emotional, and working on his ball skills. He is an excellent kick with both feet, handballs left and right and is a strong mark. The many times when Cameron’s frustrations have led to outbursts, Georgie has frequently been the one to lead him back onto the ground and playing within (emotional) regulation. Once Cameron learned that Georgie played, she became his footy-buddy and with a “Cam’s a good kick”, invited her out to the back yard for some end to end, or down to the local oval to shoot for goal. Georgie started inviting Cameron to her games, first with Claremont, then Lindisfarne.

More recently, his mentor Jeff continued this campaign to build on Cameron’s love of footy and to engage him with the sporting community.  From 2019, each Saturday Jeff would take Cam to a suburban game. The venues varied but generally they visited first Claremont, then Lindisfarne home games, with Cam barracking from the sidelines.

This season at Brighton, after his introduction to the senior men’s team, Cameron has now also become well known around the club. After his first training session (with boots provided by Jeff) the President of the club presented Cam with a training top, shorts, and track bottoms. He is greeted by all players when he enters the ground, “How are ya, Cam?” At games he goes to the canteen himself and is greeted by name by those serving, primed to know he is on his way.

Three years ago, due to concerns about community safety, property and vehicle damage, Cameron barely left his house, and while he had a reputation around town, it was for entirely different reasons to the one he has now through his various roles at the footy club. Here, he has been welcomed as a valued member of the club, taking on the role of water carrier.  In the last month he has started in the role of Umpire Escort, with a high-vis jacket (his favourite apparel) proclaiming his title on the back, providing the security escort for the umpires as they run onto and leave the oval, and standing with them at half time. During the time when COVID closed down training, “Cam’s Award” was presented each week to the player able to provide evidence of the most inventive COVID fitness regime.

This dramatic turn-around in Cameron’s life has been realised through the dedication, determination, perseverance, patience and methodical approach of the people who support him, from the support workers who see him every day to the same NDIS Planner who has seen him once a year for the last 3 years. Perseverance and dogged determination matched by Cameron’s own.

Now football is once again helping Cameron launch into a new role, and again his well-directed drop punt lands in a garden. In the next weeks, Brighton Robins home ground goals will feature electronic scoreboard ads for Cam and Jeff’s Mowing Service which was also one of the sponsors for a recent Robins function.  And they are taking calls for customers…