We may not yet have competition back, but as more people are able to gather outside, it’s my hope people will get their taste for the ‘game’ back — whatever their game may be.
But there is one thing that I’ve had time to reflect on these past few months. It’s a little phrase I’ve heard often: “I cannot wait to return to normal.”
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Trust me when I say I want to get back to my everyday routine too, so in that regard I understand. I’d love to get to the office or spend my Saturdays down at the local football.
But when I think about how we can use sport throughout this country moving forward, there is a prime opportunity to not go back to normal, but to step into a new normal.
As I place a critical eye on different sports, I see plenty of positive things happening but also the challenges that each sport faces.
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Being in Benalla, I am heartened to see so many sports continue to front up and compete every week.
But I often hear of dwindling numbers, tasks done by the few instead of the many, kids lost to sport or those forced to choose between sports too early.
I remember when I was in high school; my school didn’t have the numbers to field a girls’ netball team. While in hindsight there may have been another way for me to play elsewhere, at the time it made it difficult to continue.
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To continue to nurture all sports, and the sportspeople of this town, there needs to be a more concerted effort to move into a new normal where everyone fosters everyone else in their pursuits.
Last week I went for a drive through Warragul — the town I am currently residing in and a place not too dissimilar to Benalla — and saw a number of children and families riding their bikes in the suburbs.
To me, this is a prime example that things are changing throughout these uncertain times and that a shift to local recreation may be at play.
So it is with that hope that, when things return to a sense of normalcy, the new normal will be a better one for the wide world of sports.
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