17-07-2025
'Really felt the struggle': Swans star returns to roots to help promote mental health
Isaac Heeney's return to his junior club for the first time in three years was about more than getting back to his AFL roots.
The Sydney Swans star returned to where it all started on Wednesday afternoon with an important message about mental health, which resonated with the Cardiff Hawks after the club was left heartbroken last year.
The Hawks' first-grade men's coach, Danny Priest, died by suicide in October.
The tragedy came a month after the Hawks made the men's first-grade grand final for the first time since 2017.
It shattered the tight-knit club.
"Towards the end of our season last year, we lost someone in our club to suicide, someone who was incredibly important to us, and we really felt the impacts of that and really felt the struggle," Cardiff Hawks president Georgia Smith said.
"So this year, we have put a really strong focus on supporting our club members in returning to a season without a key member of our club.
"We started that at the beginning of the year with some mental health awareness, and through that we identified that there was quite a bit of a gap in our mental health literacy.
"We decided that mental health first aid was something that we wanted to do as a club and we wanted to be able to support our mates when they expressed they were going through some mental health troubles or challenges, and we really wanted to equip our club members with the best tools possible to support them and connect them with the right people to provide the right support."
The club were successful in applying for a Telstra Footy Country Grant to fund a two-day intensive mental health first aid training course for senior members of the club.
It was the first time a club had applied to use the grant towards mental health training.
In addition to the grant, Telstra organised for Lifeline's deputy chief researcher Dr Tara Hunt and Heeney to speak to the club about the importance of taking care of mental health as part of an introduction to mental health first aid session on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, Heeney mixed with junior Hawks on the footy field in Cameron Park.
"Obviously, it's a pretty tough situation over the last year for the Hawks here, my local footy club that I grew up playing with," Heeney, who is a Telstra ambassador, told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.
"They reached out to Telstra and Telstra are obviously running a footy country grant and the application the Cardiff Hawks put in was a different one to normal that other clubs have put in, so it was a first of its kind.
"Being my local footy club, it was a really important one to me, being a mental health first aid training application, so it was really nice to be able to come here and, rather than just give them the grant, to make a day out of it and give back to not just the seniors but the whole club.
"It's an important one. It's such a complex one at the same time, but it's something special to my heart, being my local footy club and what they've been through over the last year."
Telstra consumer executive Tom Beach said the Hawks' grant request was unique.
"In our partnership with the AFL, we have supported hundreds of clubs but we've never seen a request like this before, so we knew we had to help," Beach said.
"We hope that in bringing Isaac back to the Cardiff Hawks, and in partnering with Lifeline to provide them the right education, we can help them at this tough time, and can hopefully help local footy clubs to place emphasis on their mental health as at the professional level.
"We hope to encourage young budding talents to feel safe to speak about their mental health to shift the stigma for future generations."
Isaac Heeney's return to his junior club for the first time in three years was about more than getting back to his AFL roots.
The Sydney Swans star returned to where it all started on Wednesday afternoon with an important message about mental health, which resonated with the Cardiff Hawks after the club was left heartbroken last year.
The Hawks' first-grade men's coach, Danny Priest, died by suicide in October.
The tragedy came a month after the Hawks made the men's first-grade grand final for the first time since 2017.
It shattered the tight-knit club.
"Towards the end of our season last year, we lost someone in our club to suicide, someone who was incredibly important to us, and we really felt the impacts of that and really felt the struggle," Cardiff Hawks president Georgia Smith said.
"So this year, we have put a really strong focus on supporting our club members in returning to a season without a key member of our club.
"We started that at the beginning of the year with some mental health awareness, and through that we identified that there was quite a bit of a gap in our mental health literacy.
"We decided that mental health first aid was something that we wanted to do as a club and we wanted to be able to support our mates when they expressed they were going through some mental health troubles or challenges, and we really wanted to equip our club members with the best tools possible to support them and connect them with the right people to provide the right support."
The club were successful in applying for a Telstra Footy Country Grant to fund a two-day intensive mental health first aid training course for senior members of the club.
It was the first time a club had applied to use the grant towards mental health training.
In addition to the grant, Telstra organised for Lifeline's deputy chief researcher Dr Tara Hunt and Heeney to speak to the club about the importance of taking care of mental health as part of an introduction to mental health first aid session on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, Heeney mixed with junior Hawks on the footy field in Cameron Park.
"Obviously, it's a pretty tough situation over the last year for the Hawks here, my local footy club that I grew up playing with," Heeney, who is a Telstra ambassador, told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.
"They reached out to Telstra and Telstra are obviously running a footy country grant and the application the Cardiff Hawks put in was a different one to normal that other clubs have put in, so it was a first of its kind.
"Being my local footy club, it was a really important one to me, being a mental health first aid training application, so it was really nice to be able to come here and, rather than just give them the grant, to make a day out of it and give back to not just the seniors but the whole club.
"It's an important one. It's such a complex one at the same time, but it's something special to my heart, being my local footy club and what they've been through over the last year."
Telstra consumer executive Tom Beach said the Hawks' grant request was unique.
"In our partnership with the AFL, we have supported hundreds of clubs but we've never seen a request like this before, so we knew we had to help," Beach said.
"We hope that in bringing Isaac back to the Cardiff Hawks, and in partnering with Lifeline to provide them the right education, we can help them at this tough time, and can hopefully help local footy clubs to place emphasis on their mental health as at the professional level.
"We hope to encourage young budding talents to feel safe to speak about their mental health to shift the stigma for future generations."
Isaac Heeney's return to his junior club for the first time in three years was about more than getting back to his AFL roots.
The Sydney Swans star returned to where it all started on Wednesday afternoon with an important message about mental health, which resonated with the Cardiff Hawks after the club was left heartbroken last year.
The Hawks' first-grade men's coach, Danny Priest, died by suicide in October.
The tragedy came a month after the Hawks made the men's first-grade grand final for the first time since 2017.
It shattered the tight-knit club.
"Towards the end of our season last year, we lost someone in our club to suicide, someone who was incredibly important to us, and we really felt the impacts of that and really felt the struggle," Cardiff Hawks president Georgia Smith said.
"So this year, we have put a really strong focus on supporting our club members in returning to a season without a key member of our club.
"We started that at the beginning of the year with some mental health awareness, and through that we identified that there was quite a bit of a gap in our mental health literacy.
"We decided that mental health first aid was something that we wanted to do as a club and we wanted to be able to support our mates when they expressed they were going through some mental health troubles or challenges, and we really wanted to equip our club members with the best tools possible to support them and connect them with the right people to provide the right support."
The club were successful in applying for a Telstra Footy Country Grant to fund a two-day intensive mental health first aid training course for senior members of the club.
It was the first time a club had applied to use the grant towards mental health training.
In addition to the grant, Telstra organised for Lifeline's deputy chief researcher Dr Tara Hunt and Heeney to speak to the club about the importance of taking care of mental health as part of an introduction to mental health first aid session on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, Heeney mixed with junior Hawks on the footy field in Cameron Park.
"Obviously, it's a pretty tough situation over the last year for the Hawks here, my local footy club that I grew up playing with," Heeney, who is a Telstra ambassador, told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.
"They reached out to Telstra and Telstra are obviously running a footy country grant and the application the Cardiff Hawks put in was a different one to normal that other clubs have put in, so it was a first of its kind.
"Being my local footy club, it was a really important one to me, being a mental health first aid training application, so it was really nice to be able to come here and, rather than just give them the grant, to make a day out of it and give back to not just the seniors but the whole club.
"It's an important one. It's such a complex one at the same time, but it's something special to my heart, being my local footy club and what they've been through over the last year."
Telstra consumer executive Tom Beach said the Hawks' grant request was unique.
"In our partnership with the AFL, we have supported hundreds of clubs but we've never seen a request like this before, so we knew we had to help," Beach said.
"We hope that in bringing Isaac back to the Cardiff Hawks, and in partnering with Lifeline to provide them the right education, we can help them at this tough time, and can hopefully help local footy clubs to place emphasis on their mental health as at the professional level.
"We hope to encourage young budding talents to feel safe to speak about their mental health to shift the stigma for future generations."
Isaac Heeney's return to his junior club for the first time in three years was about more than getting back to his AFL roots.
The Sydney Swans star returned to where it all started on Wednesday afternoon with an important message about mental health, which resonated with the Cardiff Hawks after the club was left heartbroken last year.
The Hawks' first-grade men's coach, Danny Priest, died by suicide in October.
The tragedy came a month after the Hawks made the men's first-grade grand final for the first time since 2017.
It shattered the tight-knit club.
"Towards the end of our season last year, we lost someone in our club to suicide, someone who was incredibly important to us, and we really felt the impacts of that and really felt the struggle," Cardiff Hawks president Georgia Smith said.
"So this year, we have put a really strong focus on supporting our club members in returning to a season without a key member of our club.
"We started that at the beginning of the year with some mental health awareness, and through that we identified that there was quite a bit of a gap in our mental health literacy.
"We decided that mental health first aid was something that we wanted to do as a club and we wanted to be able to support our mates when they expressed they were going through some mental health troubles or challenges, and we really wanted to equip our club members with the best tools possible to support them and connect them with the right people to provide the right support."
The club were successful in applying for a Telstra Footy Country Grant to fund a two-day intensive mental health first aid training course for senior members of the club.
It was the first time a club had applied to use the grant towards mental health training.
In addition to the grant, Telstra organised for Lifeline's deputy chief researcher Dr Tara Hunt and Heeney to speak to the club about the importance of taking care of mental health as part of an introduction to mental health first aid session on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, Heeney mixed with junior Hawks on the footy field in Cameron Park.
"Obviously, it's a pretty tough situation over the last year for the Hawks here, my local footy club that I grew up playing with," Heeney, who is a Telstra ambassador, told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.
"They reached out to Telstra and Telstra are obviously running a footy country grant and the application the Cardiff Hawks put in was a different one to normal that other clubs have put in, so it was a first of its kind.
"Being my local footy club, it was a really important one to me, being a mental health first aid training application, so it was really nice to be able to come here and, rather than just give them the grant, to make a day out of it and give back to not just the seniors but the whole club.
"It's an important one. It's such a complex one at the same time, but it's something special to my heart, being my local footy club and what they've been through over the last year."
Telstra consumer executive Tom Beach said the Hawks' grant request was unique.
"In our partnership with the AFL, we have supported hundreds of clubs but we've never seen a request like this before, so we knew we had to help," Beach said.
"We hope that in bringing Isaac back to the Cardiff Hawks, and in partnering with Lifeline to provide them the right education, we can help them at this tough time, and can hopefully help local footy clubs to place emphasis on their mental health as at the professional level.
"We hope to encourage young budding talents to feel safe to speak about their mental health to shift the stigma for future generations."
