The Hawthorn Amateur Football Club and Hawthorn Cricket Club came together to promote the Wings Mental Health Program in a great iniatitive for both Clubs.
The Wings Mental Health Program was originally set up by HAFC in 2010 and has grown to become embedded in the Club's culture. We have now taken that one step further and expanded to include Hawthorn Cricket Club in what is a fantastic initiative from both committees.
A T10 cricket match was held at Rathmines Reserve on Sunday February 10 as a fundraiser to build the Cricket Club's mental health fund. Numbers are still rolling in but the Fund will certainly be off to a very healthy start!
Hawthorn Amateurs President, Pat Clancey, said, "It was great to be a part of the day and sneak home for the win but to see so many people turn out in support of Mental Health Awareness was the biggest highlight for me. In what is a huge issue in society, mental illness should be front of mind for all sporting clubs and organisations, particularly considering their demographic."
"I was really proud of our Club to be able to support this iniatitive and expand the Wings Program to include a second sporting club. I know there are a lot of other clubs across the VAFA setting up similar programs which is outstanding."
The T10 match was an alternate rules style match with everyone bowling one over (with the exception of the keeper) and batters batting in pairs for 2 overs each. The boundries were brought right in to entice some big hitting and losing a wicket would cost you 3 runs. The Footy Club batted first opening with Tom Bevan and Priji Vijayakumar (who in case you didn't hear, made 184* in a Semi Final in 2002) who made some nice runs after a shocking first over to have us on 10 at the end of the first pair. Questionable captaincy with Trav opting for two genuine number 11 batsmen in next with Rids and the Pres. They didn't make many runs at all, in fact, -1. Thankfully the pairing of Wardy and Greta found some gaps and hit the boundries to get the innings back on track. Trav and Serge set about building a nice total which looked shaky at first but they recovered to hit some late boundaries. Marbles and Xav finished things off with some big hitting, setting the Cricket Club a target of 69 for victory which seemed like 400. VAFA Head of Media, Nick Armistead, got us off to a flyer taking 3 wickets in the first over to have the cricketers on the back foot. Losing a steady stream of wickets, the pressure was mounting. There was a distinct lack of sledging from the boys & girls in red so the footy club did what they do best and sledged each other! The pair of Jacqui's were the shining light for the cricket club but it wasn't enough as they struggled to recover, eventually falling 15 runs short in what can only be described as a boil over!
Thanks must go to everyone involved at Hawthorn Cricket Club for the huge amount of work that went in to getting the day up and running. We look forward to an even stronger working relationship and growing the Wings Program together.
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