Bridget Warne, a future leader in the making
Over the school holiday period, 180 youth aged players from across New South Wales and the ACT completed the AFL Future Leaders Community Program, organised by AFL NSWACT.
The program was broken into two groups, aspiring leaders (13-15 years old) and emerging leaders (16-18 years old), with both groups completing an online module before participating in three zoom conferences. The topics covered included:
- Leadership Style
- Personal Brand
- Leading through Communication were presented.
The AFL Future Leaders Program was conducted by the Institute of Sport, who AFL NSWACT engaged as a specialist in this field.
GWS Regional Manager, Rebecca Marshall, was thrilled with the program.
“At the AFL, we not only want our players to become better players, but we want them to become better people. The AFL Future Leaders Program has enabled us to further develop local role models, who will then go back to their clubs and share this knowledge with their teammates.”
AFL Central West player, Bridget Warne, from the Bathurst Giants, was one of the program’s participants, and decided to participate in the program as she “thought it would be a great opportunity for me as well as an interesting course which would give me skills that I would continually use.”
Bridget found the program invaluable, stating that “After the AFL Future Leaders Program, I knew what my style of leadership was and that it could change depending on the age, experience and skill level of those who I would be leading. I also learnt that everyone has a personal brand and that sometimes it might not be what you expect, and that through leading these new skills, just as I have, change can be applicable.
Bridget thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the AFL Future Leaders Program. “It was really nice to be working with a new group of people who I hadn’t met before, and the diversity of the group allowed to experience the most out of the program.
AFL NSWACT facilitated this program as an opportunity to further develop the leadership skills of youth footballers, whilst the football void left by COVID-19 has delayed the start of the 2020 Season.
