On Tuesday the 29th of June some lucky students from local schools received a special visit from Fremantle Docker Casey Sibasado. The Rookie listed Docker was in Albany on Tuesday for the ‘Smarter than Smoking’ AFL Regional Player Visits. After an early morning flight Casey’s day started at Manypeaks Primary School. Casey, along with AFL Sportsready trainee Cameron Newbold and Great Southern Regional Football Development Manager Brent Sheridan conducted some Football Clinics and games with the students before speaking to them about the ‘Smarter than Smoking’ message and the importance of living a healthy and active lifestyle.
The second stop for the day was North Albany Senior High School and the Great Southern Clontarf Academy. Casey spoke to the budding young footballers about his football journey so far, the importance of living a healthy, smoke free lifestyle, and the many sacrifices he has had to make along the way to realise his dream of becoming an AFL Footballer. The boys had plenty of questions about what it takes to become an elite footballer and about what his highlights have been so far.
The Afternoon bought stops at both Flinders Park and Yakamia Primary Schools. Budding young footballers were giving the opportunity to partake in a clinic with Casey before he spoke to the school about his journey and the lifestyle of a professional athlete. The kids also had the opportunity to ask Casey questions about what it is like to be an AFL player and play and train alongside some of the games elite players like Aaron Sandilands and Matthew Pavlich, before having the opportunity to win some prizes by answering correctly questions about the Fremantle Dockers and relating to living the harm that smoking causes.
Before flying back to Perth Casey was the guest of honour at the annual NAIDOC game between Mount Lockyer Primary School and Spencer Park Primary School. Both teams put on a fantastic game and Mount Lockyer managed to just hold on to win. Regional Manager Brent Sheridan described the day as a great promotion for Football, and the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. “It’s not often that the kids have the opportunity to listen and learn from players involved at AFL level, so days like today are definitely exciting for them. It’s also important to continually promote the ‘Smarter than Smoking’ because as adults we all know the enormous negative effects that Smoking has on individuals and families so it is important that we continue to educate the youth of today on the dangers that are associated with smoking.”
“The opportunity to have players of Casey’s calibre that are involved with AFL and WAFL systems don’t come around very often so on behalf of the Great Southern Regional Football Development Council I would like to thank Casey for coming down to the Great Southern and promoting Football and importantly the ‘Smarter than Smoking’ message”
