Marg Jones and Sally Morton live more than 400km apart; the former in a satellite suburb in Melbourne’s east, the other on a sheep farm in Victoria’s far south-west. Sports altruism has brought them together, remotely, with the pair named joint Volunteers of the Year presented by Origin at the 2020 Netball Victoria Community Awards.
“To even be nominated was enough in itself and then when the four finalists were named, I was like ‘oh, my goodness’. I didn’t even think I would get that far, so to win it was amazing,’’ says Morton, in her fifth season as co-ordinator of the South West District Football Netball League and 14th as an office-bearer.
“And Marg seems like a really lovely woman, so it’s exciting to be a joint winner with someone who’s obviously just as passionate about her club and her league and netball in general as I am.’’
Sound familiar? Netball will do that. Volunteers are its lifeblood at community level, with the coronavirus ensuring that this year would involve a common suite of challenges, as well.
For Morton and her committee, there was a determination to facilitate the start of the 20-team junior competition, against the odds. It would ultimately last just two weeks in July between Covid lockdowns. It mattered not.
"We were kind of tossing it up, ‘do we, don’t we? Is it gonna be worth it?’,'' says Morton, 42, who also plays and coaches, and has been heavily involved as an umpiring advocate.
"But my club has really got behind me. I said ‘I’m willing to put the work in, but you guys really need to support it and try your best to get as many teams in it as we can'. And they were all for it and right behind me every step of the way to get something going.
“There was a little bit of work, I will say that, because we had to rejig a lot of things. So, to only get two weeks, we were all a bit upset, but I coached as well, so to be out there and be amongst it for two weeks with all the clubs and the girls was brilliant. The smiles on their faces just made it worthwhile.
“Especially when it comes to our juniors, I’ll give anything a crack to keep them involved. I just feel like they’re the future and it was a ‘grab the bull by the horns’ type of deal when it all opened back up. So, I was like ‘I am going to do something, no matter what, to keep them involved’ because just trying to keep them engaged is so important, especially in a rural community. So important.''
Indeed, what the SWDFNL lacks in size compared with some of its western district counterparts that are jovially referred to as the ‘’Premier League” does not diminish its contribution to the netball family.
“We just plod along and do our little bit down here in the south west, but I think we’ve actually come from strength to strength over the last few years, which is really good,'' says Morton. "We’ve added in a couple of new junior grades and a new senior grade, and we’re just this great little community. So, it was really nice to be thought of. ’’
Across the state at the Pakenham Lions Netball Club, fourth-year-President Jones and her dedicated band of helpers were also committed to keeping players, families and officials connected during a season cruelly paralysed by the pandemic.
Jones rises at 5am to get in a few hours of netball work before heading to her day job in insurance client services, and then resumes in the evenings and on weekends. She is credited with an outstanding effort overseeing the 10 teams involved in the AFL Outer East Football Netball League, with another 15-plus Pakenham sides typically entered in the mid-week indoor competition at Cardinia Life.
“We have 27 teams on the go, combined, most years,'' says Jones, 57. "We recognised straight away that Covid was going to be very challenging for some people, so we made it an objective that we would stay in contact with every single player and family and sponsor in our club and to do that we would do social media, we would do weekly Zoom sessions.''
Subjects ranged from fitness and yoga to skills and rules, while Jones checked in personally with every member each fortnight and sent individual birthday messages to all.
Between attending webinars and a long list of other contributions, she also accessed a connection program through the Sport and Life Training experts at SALT, and organised sponsorship through Netball Victoria and WorkSafe to provide access to all.
“I talk about coaches making game-changing moves in what they do on court with players; I reckon the SALT session, this was a game-changer off the court in what it helped us recognise and identify - especially going into that second lockdown, which was really hard for some people that lost their jobs, they weren’t at uni, at school, and dealing with all the complex issues that surrounded Covid,'' says Jones.
“I just knew that it was a tough year and we weren’t going to be able to see them in person to make them feel special. We use the old netty catch cry ‘Here if you need - always’, and we kept making sure that people felt connected. Some people didn’t choose to take that connection up, and that’s fine, but we wanted everybody to know that they had somewhere to go if they needed to. That was really important to us.’’
As modest and determined to glory-share as Morton, Jones - who has been a committee member for 12 years, six of them as secretary and President for the past four - flagged a group celebration at the Covid-compliant on-court Christmas picnic.
“It is truly overwhelming,’’ she says, when asked what the award means in a personal sense. “I think Covid made us work even harder in wanting to be connected with everybody. We work tirelessly for our players, but it’s a team effort, it really is, and I accept this on behalf of the whole team.’’
Still, outstanding individual contributions deserve recognition, too, and these worthy joint Volunteers of the Year are now in touch via email. Sharing common ground in the year of coronavirus, however physically distant.
Jade Lindrea-Jones Senior Manager, Brand at Origin, congratulates the joint winners on behalf of Origin Energy who proudly support Victorian netball communities in order to give them the power to thrive.
“Congratulations to Marg Jones and Sally Morton on receiving Netball Victoria's Volunteer of the Year Awards. 2020 has been challenging year for everyone, and it is wonderful to see Marg and Sally lead their netball communities to stay connected and engaged during isolation."
Written by Linda Pearce
