Ladder Development Coach Brittany hosted an online Q&A session with 6 young people from our current Step Up Latrobe Valley program. The guest speakers for this session were Amelia Velardo from Collingwood Football Club and Izzy Huntington from Western Bulldogs Football Club.

Both players were asked about how they balance playing football and studying and gave some helpful tips on finding a job. Izzy highlighted that it was okay to try different things before finding the right one.

What matters to you is that you find something that interests you and it's something that you enjoy

When asked how they look after themselves during lockdown, they had some helpful tips that included meditation and walking. Amelia said that music really helped with her, and this was definitely something that resonated with all the young people. This led to discussion around why it's important to look after both your mental and physical health.

Resilience is a key message we focus on in our program and how important it is to recover from a difficult experience. Izzy and Amelia opened up about their experiences with injuries and having to adapt to a new sporting environment.

It's not something you can work on overnight. It's something that you learn from your own experiences

The young people were then given the opportunity to ask Izzy and Amelia any questions. It was great to hear from them about what the most challenging thing about playing football was, how they deal with social media trolls and what makes a good leader.

We thank Amelia and Izzy for their time today and for sharing such valuable advice and tips.