Michael Todd and Belinda McCallum both played with the Deniliquin Rams in their younger days, and have reconnected with the club through their children.
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Neither of them is the kind of person that will sit on the sidelines, and so they have volunteered in whatever capacity they could to ensure the club they loved could continue running.
Their individual efforts were recognised by the Deniliquin Rams Football Netball Club on Saturday night.
They were jointly recognised as senior club person during the club’s annual presentation night.
‘‘It was totally out of the blue,’’ Todd said.
‘‘You don’t go on committees for individual recognitions. You’re on the committee for the good of all, and we all work as a team.
‘‘It is probably unwarranted (for me to get the award), but it is nice to be recognised.’’
Todd played junior football with the club in the 1980s, and was in the reserves when a game day injury saw him dislocate and fracture his neck.
It ended his playing career, but Todd was soon back involved in the club in a different capacity.
‘‘The injury forced me to retire from football and I took up golf instead, but I came back to the club in the early 2000s as a runner for a few years.
‘‘And then my kids started playing with the Rams. Luke is in the under 17s and Josh in the under 14s.
‘‘I am a firm believer that if you want to have a handle on the direction of the club you need to get involved, so I did.
‘‘My involvement has grown to being on the executive, and there are some exciting times ahead.’’
Todd has been involved at a club level in may different roles, more recently taking a leadership role in the ongoing committee restructure and helping with the Golden Fleece fundraising efforts.
McCallum played netball with the Rams ‘‘30 years ago’’ and after a stint living away from Deniliquin, returned to take on a more active role with the club 15 years ago.
As a registered nurse, she is part of the training team and has developed the club’s return from injury and concussion protocols.
Over the last two years, she’s also been the COVID-19 manager for the club.
She’s also been a committee member, and is a past netball team manager.
Like Todd, she said it’s the family aspect of the club that drew her back.
‘‘The club is very family orientated, something which has grown incredibly since we moved back 15 years ago,’’ she said.
‘‘The club is full of great people, and has a great committee and junior development program.
‘‘It does good things in terms of sports training, which makes my job very easy.
‘‘I was greatly humbled by the award, but you do the work because you want to and not for the accolades.’’
The whole McCallum family is involved with the club, with husband Geoff a football coach, Tom graduating from the junior ranks in to senior football in 2022 and Charlie moving in to the fourths from the under 12s development team.
Their daughter Emma also played for the Rams before heading off for university.
Other awards presented by the Deniliquin Rams Football Netball Club are as follows.
Senior awards
Seniors football: Best & Fairest – Brayden Hall; Runner up – Todd Gallagher.
Reserves football: B&F – Logan Ives; Runner up – Aiden Free.
A grade netball: B&F – Rhiannan Maxwell; Runner up – Ella Harvey.
B grade netball: B&F – Kayla Hussey; Runners up – Keely Mitsch and Elle Parsons.
C grade netball: B&F – Steph Birk; Runner up – Eloise Maher.
C reserve netball: B&F – Amber Farley; Runner up – Lily Bond.
Junior awards
Junior club person – Jake Herberte.
Umpire encouragement – Loris Wills and Annie Harvey.
Thirds football: B&F – Tom McCallum; Runner up – Charlie Hillier.
Fourths football: B&F – Sam Crossley; Runner up – Nash Suckling.
Fifths football: B&F – Oscar Wren; Runner up Tynen Rothe.
U17 netball: B&F – Chloe Way; Runner up – Annie Harvey.
U15 netball: B&F – Bonnie Everett; Runner up – Phoebe Jefferies.
U13 netball: B&F – Ava Richards; Runners up – Shontai O’Callaghan and Aysha Mitsch.
Ram’s blue netball: B&F – Abbey Doncon; Runner up – Macy Butcher.