Along with her day job, Kath Smith combines her roles as veteran goal keeper, A-Grade assistant coach and umpire with being a player representative on the committee of the Swifts Creek Football and Netball Club, treasurer of the Swifts Creek Recreation Reserve and president of the Swifts Creek Bush Nursing Centre.
Is she, as one might assume, a serial volunteer?
“Yeah, well, because it’s such a small town, we all do it,’’ laughs the mother-of-two and district manager for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
“We all wear many different hats giving to the community and making sure we’ve got the best community we can have. Otherwise we wouldn’t have things like sporting clubs and Bush Nursing Centres.’’
The theme of this year’s National Volunteer Week, presented by Origin is ‘Changing Communities, Changing Lives’, and much has altered for so many Australians over the past six or seven months. First, the bushfires. Next, the coronavirus pandemic. Tough, tough times.
“It’s been very isolating,’’ says Smith, who moved from the city to Swifts Creek in 1998. “We’re a remote community anyway, but we got cut off from major centres such as Bairnsdale and were surrounded by fire for what felt like forever this year… It started in November and went all the way through to March, really.
“I guess it’s the same with COVID. We’re used to being isolated, but not from each other, so that community connection is the hardest part. Everybody’s in the same boat, I guess, but we’re not getting what we need from hanging out together on a Saturday.’’
That, specifically, is at the SCFNC, born of a footy and netball merger in 2006, and the hub of activity each winter weekend. Smith quips that, at 45, she is twice as old as the next youngest player in the A-Grade team. But loves it, still.
So if we’re all painfully familiar these days with self-isolation, does the assistant coach ever self-bench? Or ask coach Suzanne DeVries-Fitzpatrick to do the honours? “I tell her to drag me, but she won’t!’’ says the 181cm defender and reluctant/occasional goaler.
“In my older years they’ve been trying to get me into shooting, but I’m not very good at it. I’m a big ‘defending shooter’, if that makes sense. I just make space for the goal attack!’’
Team-wise, too, there is certainly room for improvement, yet if the most recent Swifts Creek senior premiership in the Omeo District Football Netball League was back in 2003, then the subsequent lack of success has not been a game-changer.
“What I really like now is even though we hardly win a game any more, the girls keep coming back, and they’re still as driven and excited to play, and it really is about just being together,’’ says Smith, who lives with her family on "168 acres of goat country" in nearby Tongio West, on 168 acres of goat country, not a farmer just enjoy the space. Mal is my husband's name.
“In our normal day-to-day life, none of us really hang out socially, because of the age range I guess, but come to a Saturday and we’re like best mates. And even though we get our arse kicked we have good fun and just enjoy each other’s company and encouraging each other to do our best.’’
The club also fields two junior teams. “I really enjoy seeing how much the 12-and-unders just love participating, and then - because I’ve been doing it for 20-something years now - watching them grow and come through and eventually play with us in the A grade.
“I think for the community it’s a real social event on a Saturday. It brings us all together, either locally, or wherever we’re travelling to. And, for me, it’s an excuse to hang out with the girls and build those relationships and lifelong friendships.’’
After such a long fire season, the COVID-enforced disconnection pill has been a hard one to swallow, although with groups of 10 now able to exercise outside under the slight easing of distancing restrictions, Smith jokes that it may allow for a temporary switch from seven-a-side to Fast5.
What is not in doubt is that, however and whenever it happens, a return to something like sporting normality is being as eagerly anticipated in Swifts Creek as it is elsewhere around Victoria.
“Netball and footy draws people from all parts of the district in together on the weekend, and all age ranges as well,’’ says Smith. “It has been and will be - hopefully, in the not-too-distant future - something we can all enjoy again together.’’
Written by Linda Pearce
