This week, Mary Kaye gives her thoughts ahead of the Round 11 clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium on Friday 22 May. You can catch up on Mary Kaye's blogs at Ladies who League here
I hope everyone enjoyed Women in League round as much as I did. What a tremendous opportunity to celebrate all the women involved in our game.
Apart from seeing Kasey Badger as touchie in the game between our Eels and the Warriors, my proudest moment of the round was watching my Club take a stand against the national emergency currently happening in Australia.
On Saturday, the Eels made history and became the first national sporting body in Australia to launch a Domestic Violence Action Plan.
The Parramatta Eels as a club, mean so much to the people of Parramatta and mean so much to me. They are a focal point of our community and have a tremendous power to reach people and then influence those people. With this power comes tremendous responsibility and the ability to initiate and drive change. Our Club have decided to use this power to make a strong stance against domestic and family violence in this country.
Through a partnership with the Northern Territory Government, our friends in #eelsterritory, the Eels have joined forces with the NO MORE campaign to develop the DVAP and show their commitment to driving change in our community and amongst the Parramatta Eels fan base with the goal of becoming a leader in the Australian sporting community.
Now, this plan has only just been launched and the Club can be accused of not having done anything yet. This is the wrong view to take. This Plan is the first step in showing that the Eels commitment is not tokenistic – it is a commitment to change and to taking a stance in the broader community. Some of the objectives included in the Plan include:
· engaging on a national level with Domestic Violence groups;
· raising awareness in the Parramatta Eels community and raising awareness at all levels of the Club;
· including the commitment in the code of behaviour for all Board, staff and players; and
· evaluation of these objectives regularly.
I watched with pride on Saturday as I saw the Parramatta Eels say ‘no more’ to family violence. I watched as my Club announced that any violence towards females was unacceptable. I watched my players link arms and recognise the power that this Club has in the community.
I applaud the Eels for their stance. I want to encourage the NRL and the other clubs to also commit to a strong stance and support the Eels in the commitment they have made.
This stance was far more important to me than any result on the day. As we often say in football, there is always next week and what a test we have this week.
Our victory against the Bunnies earlier this year was my favourite game of the year so far. I'm hoping that this will be the game where our boys get back on track after a heartbreaking loss on the weekend.
More than anything though, I am hoping to be amongst a sea of blue and gold this Friday night as we show those Bunnies just how potent our attack can be.
