Latest news with #Werribee
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- The Guardian
Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown was sacked by Melbourne childcare centre in 2021 before joining another
Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown was sacked from a Melbourne childcare centre in Melbourne's west after working there for just three weeks, it has been revealed. Nido Early School on Thursday confirmed it terminated Brown from its Werribee childcare service during his probation period in July 2021, after he allegedly breached the company's internal policies around handling of incident reports. Brown's termination was first reported by the ABC and it is not alleged he engaged in sexual offending at the centre. 'Nido Early School can confirm the individual was terminated during his probation period after working 18 individual days at the Werribee service,' a spokesperson for the childcare provider said. 'This related specifically to unsatisfactory attention by the individual to an incident report concerning a child's behaviour towards another child. 'The action did not relate to any behaviour by the individual towards a child.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The spokesperson said Nido Early School has 'zero tolerance for the non-compliance to our internal policies, no matter how trivial they sound to external parties'. 'We supervise all staff closely, with additional attention given to new starters. In this case the breach of internal policy led to termination,' they said. 'Nido has fully cooperated with police and other departments.' Three months later, in October 2021, Brown started working at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, where police allege he sexually abused children in his care between 2022 and 2023. Creative Garden Early Learning Centre is owned by G8 Education, which last week confirmed it had twice reported Brown's conduct to authorities between October 2021 and February 2024. Neither report involved allegations of sexual abuse. The first was made in April 2023, after allegations Brown 'aggressively picked up and put down' a child and then failed to support them when they became upset. Victoria police, the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) and the education department were notified but the matter was 'referred back to G8 Education for internal investigation and disciplinary response', the provider said. The internal investigation resulted in a formal written warning and a performance improvement plan. Brown then took three months' leave. The second report was made in January 2024 after allegations Brown 'raised his voice during interactions with three children and forcibly grabbed the arm of one child, the leg of another child and forcibly pulled off that child's shoe'. Police, the CCYP and the department were again notified and the matter was referred back to G8, who suspended Brown. They said Brown 'resigned from his employment with G8 Education during the investigation and did not return to his employment'. The company said there was a 'need for national harmonisation of policies, regulations, systems and processes across governments and regulators across Australia'. In early July, police revealed Brown had been charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims, aged between five months and two years old. Along with the health department, they identified they released a list of childcare centres where Brown worked between January 2017 and May 2025 and his known employment dates, and urged the parents of approximately 1,200 children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections. 'This is obviously a highly distressing situation, and I want to reassure all families being contacted that the potential exposure risk to an infectious disease for their child remains low,' the Victorian chief health officer, Dr Christian McGrath, said. 'Our recommendation for testing is a precaution and the test results we've received to date as part of this investigation reaffirms that the risk is low.' This week, five more childcare centres were added to Brown's work history by police, bringing the total number of his known childcare workplaces to 23, as well as a children's occupational therapy service. An additional 800 additional children have also been recommended for testing. Police have warned 'further updates are likely in the coming weeks'. They said establishing Brown's complete work history had been 'extremely complex' as childcare providers do not have centralised records. The federal education minister, Jason Clare, said the situation highlighted the need for a national registry of childcare workers. The Victorian government had already committed to developing its own database within months, citing the 'frustratingly slow' federal response.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- ABC News
Accused child sex offender Joshua Dale Brown sacked from former Melbourne childcare employer
Accused sexual abuser Joshua Dale Brown was sacked from a Melbourne childcare centre over his handling of an incident report months before he started working at the centre where his alleged assaults took place. His termination came days after a parent at the centre raised concerns about Mr Brown and asked that he not be allowed near her daughter. Emma*, who has asked the ABC not to use her real name, had previously worked with Mr Brown at another centre in 2017 and was concerned about his behaviour towards children. "He just had absolutely zero understanding of how to conduct himself around children," she said. "He could be really warm and loving to the children, and then really rude and cold. He could be quite horrible to the children." Emma said she never saw Mr Brown hurt the children in his care, but her concerns led her to raise the alarm at her daughter's childcare centre — Nido Early School — when she discovered he had started working there in 2021. "When I was asked what made me feel that way, I couldn't describe it as more than a gut feeling," she said. Nido Early School has confirmed Mr Brown was dismissed from its Werribee childcare centre less than three weeks into his job after breaching the company's internal policies around handling of incident reports. There is no suggestion from authorities that Mr Brown engaged in any sexual abuse at the centre during the 18 days he worked there, and the ABC understands his dismissal was not connected to Emma raising concerns with centre management. "This related specifically to unsatisfactory attention by the individual to an incident report concerning a child's behaviour towards another child," the childcare operator said in a statement. "The action did not relate to any behaviour by the individual towards a child." Nido Early School has declined to provide further details of Mr Brown's conduct, but sources have told the ABC that the matter involved incorrect information being entered on the incident report. No system is 100 per cent secure, but the Signal app can be used to protect your identity by using end-to-end encryption. Please read the terms and conditions of the app to work out if it is the best method of communication for you. "We have zero tolerance for the non-compliance to our internal policies, no matter how trivial they sound to external parties," the Nido Early School statement said. "We supervise all staff closely, with additional attention given to new starters. In this case, the breach of internal policy led to termination." "Nido has fully cooperated with police and other departments" Mr Brown was still in his probationary period when he was dismissed from the centre. Three months later, in October 2021, he started working at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre. Mr Brown has been charged with dozens of offences allegedly committed during this time at Creative Garden between October 2021 and February 2024, including sexual assault and producing child abuse material. Authorities have identified 23 childcare centres around Melbourne that employed Mr Brown between January 2017 and May this year and asked more than 2,000 children who attended the centres and their families to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Police have also charged Mr Brown with allegedly contaminating food with his bodily fluids. Emma's daughter was among those who had to undergo testing. "It's been traumatic," she said. "She's still little, the world is still a wonderful place to her. To have to tell her that she has to go through testing, it's been really hard." Emma says she first raised concerns about Mr Brown while working with him at another childcare centre, the similarly named Nino Early Learning in Point Cook in 2017. She judged he was not fit to work in the sector. The ABC has asked Nino Early Learning if it has a record of Emma raising concerns about Mr Brown, but the operator has not responded to questions. Emma stopped working at the centre shortly after raising her concerns, while Mr Brown left in June 2019. Emma said she became immediately distressed when she discovered Mr Brown had started working at her daughter's centre, Nido Early School, four years later in 2021. "My stomach dropped. I cried the whole way to work," she said. "I picked her up a little bit earlier that day." She said she immediately raised her concerns with the centre manager and was happy with how Nido Early School responded. "I didn't feel comfortable with him being anywhere near my child, and I remember clearly telling them that he was to be nowhere near her." Emma was relieved when she heard Mr Brown had been dismissed after working at the centre for eight days. "But [I was] also concerned about where he would go to next." Nido Early Learning did not respond to questions about Emma's complaint. The revelation of Mr Brown's sacking from the centre adds to a list of workplace issues during his eight years working in the sector. Last week, the ABC revealed Creative Garden owner G8 Education had twice reported Mr Brown's conduct to authorities, including allegations that he "aggressively" handled a child. Emma, who still works in the childcare sector, says the case should be a wake-up call for operators and regulators. "Because if this person can get through and be able to work across so many services without being detected, what else is out there? Who else is out there?" she said. *Emma's name has been changed at her request
ABC News
30-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Ambulance Victoria struggling to fill intensive care ambulance shifts in Geelong
Leaked Ambulance Victoria communications show the organisation is struggling to fill shifts for highly-trained intensive care paramedics in the Geelong region, prompting warnings it is putting lives at risk. One local paramedic revealed Ambulance Victoria was routinely unable to staff Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) units, and said there was often just one unit covering the "huge" region stretching from Werribee to Warrnambool. The Geelong-region MICA paramedic, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, said they knew of eight occasions in May where a local MICA unit was unable to be staffed — known as "dropped shifts". "It's pretty routine that we're dropping shifts," they said. The region's MICA resourcing has become so problematic that there is now a documented workflow for staffing the Norlane-based MICA unit with lesser-trained paramedics. Ambulance Victoria declined to confirm how many dropped shifts had occurred in the region. MICA specialists are some of the highest-trained paramedics in the state. To become a MICA specialist, an Ambulance Victoria paramedic needs two years' experience before undertaking a three-year internship, which includes a 12-month diploma. The wider Geelong region, from Werribee to Warrnambool, is covered by MICA units based at Belmont, Norlane and Leopold, while a unit in Warrnambool — almost 200 kilometres west of Geelong — is included in the Barwon South West region. "It's all the one team, the Geelong MICA team, and they run a single responder out at Norlane, they run a unit at Belmont — both those run 24 hours — and then the one out at Leopold is 10am till 10pm," the paramedic said. Ambulance Victoria, however, appears to be consistently struggling to fill those shifts. The ABC has seen a cache of text messages from Ambulace Victoria calling for paramedics to fill local MICA unit shifts, including 46 messages sent over a 57-day period from late April to mid-June. The texts are an example of how often the agency is scrambling to fill shifts in Geelong, the paramedic said. "The messages come out as a last resort, so they've got no spare staff, [no-one] in reserve to work those shifts, so that's sent out to all MICA paramedics," they said. "We're getting a text message, essentially at 4pm or 3pm and the crews need to work at 5pm, so as you can imagine there's not usually much uptake at that time of day to come in." Geelong's MICA staffing struggle is the result of a "multitude" of issues, the paramedic said, including staffing shortages, long shifts, burnout, the massive distances covered by the local units, hospital ramping, and the highly-trained paramedics regularly being sent to non-emergency jobs. "We don't have the pool of staff that we used to have," they said. "I think employees are also fed up of coming in and putting a band-aid on the solution. "It puts a lot of pressure on someone when they're the only intensive care paramedic… and putting themselves under undue stress and feeling like they've got to support the whole region constantly. "It's not just a once off — it's once a week, twice a week. "We need to fill these shifts. We need to have intensive care paramedics available to the region." A lack of staffing for the Norlane-based MICA unit has become so frequent Ambulance Victoria now has a documented workflow for manning the vehicle with lesser-trained paramedics. Emails sent in March by Ambulance Victoria managers in Geelong, seen by the ABC, advise staff of the workflow to utilise the Norlane 24-hour MICA vehicle as an Ambulance Response Unit (ARU), designated AR208. The workflow includes a list of MICA equipment to be removed from the vehicle, and a list of equipment that can be used instead. "This is becoming more common due to poor MICA resourcing, and you may have your night shifts changed to fill AR208," one manager's email noted. Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the struggle to fill MICA shifts in the region meant "categorically lives are put at risk". "We have a dual capability model for a reason, Advanced Life Support (ALS) working alongside intensive care (MICA) paramedics," Mr Hill said. "The model is set up to work that way, and when it is not available — particularly in an area the size of Geelong — it's not sensationalising to say that yes, lives are definitely put at risk by that. "We regularly hear from our ALS paramedics that they're calling for MICA backup, their patient is quite unwell, they need intensive care backup, and they call for it and they're told there's none available, or they're told they've got to come across from Ballarat or metropolitan west." Mr Hill said that Geelong's MICA staffing struggle was a result of numerous issues, including local paramedics working long, difficult shifts with little downtime, leading to burnout. "They're not going to do that if they're burnt out, if they're cooked. "It is a vicious cycle and we're so far behind the eight-ball it's hard to see us getting back in front of it. "To us the answer is bringing Ambulance Victoria back to its core role of being an emergency service, and not enough has been done about that in recent years. "I would say categorically that it is at crisis level, but it's just this state of inertia that we're in at the moment, that we don't seem to be able to break out of." Ambulance Victoria declined to confirm how many "dropped shifts" had been recorded in the Geelong region this year, nor how many occurred in May. It also did not respond to the ABC's question of whether it was struggling to fill MICA shifts in the Geelong region. The agency instead provided a statement from an unnamed spokesperson. "Ambulance Victoria uses a dynamic operating model to get the right care to the right place at the right time — using tools like shift texts, flexible crewing and cross-regional support to make sure emergency care is available when and where it's needed most," the statement read. Ambulance Victoria's annual report shows the level of full-time equivalent MICA staff fell to a 10-year low in 2023-24 at 503.4. It compares to the next lowest of 520.2 in 2014-15, and the highest staffing level of 569.1 in 2018-9. It is hoped that a record number of MICA trainees will help increase the number of full-time equivalent MICA paramedics. Ambulance Victoria did not say whether it was concerned by the 10-year low, nor why the drop in staffing levels had occurred.
Sydney Morning Herald
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
This suburban club has produced seven AFL players in 18 months, but that's not what it's most proud of
In its past 31 games since the 2023 VFL grand final, Werribee have had seven players drafted to the AFL. It's a staggering strike rate, born of the most basic principles. 'This is like a country local footy club that plays at a higher level,' says coach Jimmy Allan, who hails from down the road at Lara and played for Werribee in the early 2000s before a storied SANFL career. His assistant Kyle Hartigan hits another note. 'We're a community club – we wouldn't have this without them,' he says, crediting not just the people of Werribee but sprawling Wyndham City, the fastest-growing municipality in Australia. Michael Barlow, poster boy for late-bloomers who was drafted to Fremantle from Werribee in 2010, needs no prompting to join the chorus. 'The Werribee Football Club has been the most important organisation in my life.' If community, connection and care underpin Werribee, the product of the 1965 amalgamation of four local clubs also boasts an asset almost as constant as the ancient river red gums that flank its Chirnside Park home. Mark Penaluna, in his 22nd year as CEO, is the heartbeat of the club. 'Anyone who has been associated with local footy, we're just an extension of that, we're just talking bigger numbers,' Penaluna says. To be a community club, he reckons, means leaving your ego at the door. 'We understand we're not just here to win a game of footy, this is something people look forward to each week – training, games, sharing the wins and losses.' Every footballer starts at a local club, where much is done by few. When they arrive at Werribee, it's made clear that everyone – from the office to maintenance to the property steward – makes up the club. 'If you see a broom and the floor's dirty, the expectation is you pick the broom up, give it a sweep, and make it clean for the next person.' Many people whose lives are enriched here never lace a football boot. Wyndham Community Education runs eight English classes each week, making the club an early connection point for new arrivals to the area. On Sundays, Anglican followers of Sojourners Church gather for services held by pastor Andrew Seedhom, who is also club chaplain. Loading On game days, Penaluna spends half an hour on the gate before Seedhom relieves him, greeting players' families and Werribee's fans. Everyone is included in successes little and large, from office staff to sponsors to the volunteers who keep the wheels of community clubs turning. For Penaluna, football and its importance to community are ingrained. His father captain-coached Port Melbourne Colts. As a five-year-old, he had two game-day jobs: listen to the opposition coach's address and report back; and in quarters played with no added time, stand behind the goals and get the ball back to the umpires ASAP if the Colts were trailing. 'And if we were in front, kick the hell out of it the other way.' He ran the Western Region league for five years before arriving at Werribee in 2003. His first game-day task was helping volunteers George and Jimmy drag the barbecue out of the showers under the old grandstand, so the umpires could get changed. There was no canteen; the barbie was a major source of income. 'We had one desktop computer, and if it rained we had to put bubble wrap over it because there was a hole in the roof and possums living up there.' His staff consisted of one part-time venue manager. The club's 2025 season guide lists Penaluna as one of 28 employees. More people work in community roles than once worked for the entire club. Welfare manager Damien Frankling has been around since 2008, chaplain Seedhom for the past four years. 'Having those constants helps enormously, honest conversations and all that stuff,' Penaluna says. Facilities help. In 2008, the club went to council with a proposed upgrade that had cost close to $12 million upon completion a decade later. Income is drawn from Wyndham entertainment venues, with $300,000 put back into the community annually, including sponsoring every football club in the municipality. 'We agreed with council that we'll continue to provide these programs and extend them, and make sure we only charge community organisation rates not commercial,' Penaluna says. Werribee has been a 'standalone' VFL club since 2018, after affiliations with Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne. The latter endures through the North Melbourne Werribee Kangaroos in the VFLW and 'The Huddle', which has delivered programs to more than 50,000 young people since 2016 to strengthen education and employment outcomes. For Barlow, who coached the Bees to runners-up in 2023 before Allan brought home the club's second premiership last year, being standalone is crucial to success. In training together throughout summer, bonds and trust are built and players improve by challenging each other. Playing every home game at a different venue – from Wangaratta to Torquay – during the 2017 renovations fostered an 'anyone, anywhere, anytime' zeal. 'If they weren't standalone, some of the guys I played with just wouldn't play,' Barlow says. 'They'd go and try and find connection and community and togetherness at a local club.' He regards Shaun Mannagh, drafted by Geelong in 2023 aged 25, as 'the most club-oriented person I've met in football'. Loading With VFL rivals Williamstown and Port Melbourne to the east and Geelong to the west, Werribee must be creative in their recruiting. There are enough Geelong-based players to warrant a van (they spin a key to see who drives), while leagues to the north like Ballarat, Ovens and Murray and Goulburn Valley produce players who fuel the country vibe. Allan chuckles at the notion that developing footballers so well surely equates to a queue of Werribee wannabes stretching along Watton St. Even in a competitive market, he doesn't use recent draft success as a carrot. 'I would never say, 'Come here and we'll get you drafted.' If a club thinks they need them on their list they'll find a way. Our job is to help them be the best player and best person they can be. I know it's a cliche, but we're genuinely invested in doing that. 'With the five who've gone [to AFL clubs] in my time here, not once did they ask, 'What do I need to do to get drafted?' Their questions were around, 'What can I do to help our team be the best we can be?' It's about playing your role and doing it better than anybody else. That's why these guys are getting a chance.' Smiling again, Allan adds, 'We're big on cliches.' Hartigan's story offers a compelling blueprint. Overlooked as an 18-year-old after trying to be something he wasn't, he spent three years at Werribee 'and just went back to what I was good at, which was nullifying opponents'. Eventually, Adelaide identified a need in defence, 'and I was in the right place, right time, playing my role'. He played 135 games for the Crows and Hawthorn. The cliche won out. Barlow, whose introduction to the local community after signing to play in 2008 featured a walk through town in 37-degree heat wearing the mascot's tiger suit, praises the role on-field leaders have longed played. Initially it was the likes of Dom Gleeson, James Podsiadly, Teghan Henderson, and upon his post-AFL return Michael Sodomaco, Nick Coughlan, Tom Gribble. Of today's crop, Dom Brew's great frustration at being overlooked time and again is matched internally by gratitude for what he does for his teammates. 'Knocked back draft after draft, and he keeps turning up,' Hartigan says. 'He drives standards really hard.' All are quick to note the club isn't just producing players. Barlow's football journey moved to North Melbourne last season, where he is head of development. Melbourne Storm's chief medico Rebecca Beaton was club doctor for six years. The Brisbane Lions' VFL coach Ben Hudson vaulted from Werribee to Adelaide aged 24. Former fitness coach Johann Billsborough runs health and performance for the Dallas Mavericks. Analysts, psychologists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, even a ticketing coordinator have been prepped for bigger things. Alastair Clarkson's first senior coaching post was with Werribee in 2000. ' Flynn Young has gone to Carlton [in the mid-season draft], he'll have been greeted by three ex-Werribee people who work there now,' Penaluna says. 'There's two at North where Zac Banch has walked into.' Loading This production line can be problematic. Banch's first VFL game for North Melbourne last weekend happened to be back at Chirnside Park; he kicked three. Werribee, with fresh holes to fill, have slipped to 12th midway through their premiership defence. 'If the worst thing that happens is you lose guys to a higher lever, it's not a bad position to be in,' Allan says. 'Seeing how happy they are to get a crack at their dream offsets any frustration you have of losing them.'
The Age
13-06-2025
- Sport
- The Age
This suburban club has produced seven AFL players in 18 months, but that's not what it's most proud of
In its past 31 games since the 2023 VFL grand final, Werribee have had seven players drafted to the AFL. It's a staggering strike rate, born of the most basic principles. 'This is like a country local footy club that plays at a higher level,' says coach Jimmy Allan, who hails from down the road at Lara and played for Werribee in the early 2000s before a storied SANFL career. His assistant Kyle Hartigan hits another note. 'We're a community club – we wouldn't have this without them,' he says, crediting not just the people of Werribee but sprawling Wyndham City, the fastest-growing municipality in Australia. Michael Barlow, poster boy for late-bloomers who was drafted to Fremantle from Werribee in 2010, needs no prompting to join the chorus. 'The Werribee Football Club has been the most important organisation in my life.' If community, connection and care underpin Werribee, the product of the 1965 amalgamation of four local clubs also boasts an asset almost as constant as the ancient river red gums that flank its Chirnside Park home. Mark Penaluna, in his 22nd year as CEO, is the heartbeat of the club. 'Anyone who has been associated with local footy, we're just an extension of that, we're just talking bigger numbers,' Penaluna says. To be a community club, he reckons, means leaving your ego at the door. 'We understand we're not just here to win a game of footy, this is something people look forward to each week – training, games, sharing the wins and losses.' Every footballer starts at a local club, where much is done by few. When they arrive at Werribee, it's made clear that everyone – from the office to maintenance to the property steward – makes up the club. 'If you see a broom and the floor's dirty, the expectation is you pick the broom up, give it a sweep, and make it clean for the next person.' Many people whose lives are enriched here never lace a football boot. Wyndham Community Education runs eight English classes each week, making the club an early connection point for new arrivals to the area. On Sundays, Anglican followers of Sojourners Church gather for services held by pastor Andrew Seedhom, who is also club chaplain. Loading On game days, Penaluna spends half an hour on the gate before Seedhom relieves him, greeting players' families and Werribee's fans. Everyone is included in successes little and large, from office staff to sponsors to the volunteers who keep the wheels of community clubs turning. For Penaluna, football and its importance to community are ingrained. His father captain-coached Port Melbourne Colts. As a five-year-old, he had two game-day jobs: listen to the opposition coach's address and report back; and in quarters played with no added time, stand behind the goals and get the ball back to the umpires ASAP if the Colts were trailing. 'And if we were in front, kick the hell out of it the other way.' He ran the Western Region league for five years before arriving at Werribee in 2003. His first game-day task was helping volunteers George and Jimmy drag the barbecue out of the showers under the old grandstand, so the umpires could get changed. There was no canteen; the barbie was a major source of income. 'We had one desktop computer, and if it rained we had to put bubble wrap over it because there was a hole in the roof and possums living up there.' His staff consisted of one part-time venue manager. The club's 2025 season guide lists Penaluna as one of 28 employees. More people work in community roles than once worked for the entire club. Welfare manager Damien Frankling has been around since 2008, chaplain Seedhom for the past four years. 'Having those constants helps enormously, honest conversations and all that stuff,' Penaluna says. Facilities help. In 2008, the club went to council with a proposed upgrade that had cost close to $12 million upon completion a decade later. Income is drawn from Wyndham entertainment venues, with $300,000 put back into the community annually, including sponsoring every football club in the municipality. 'We agreed with council that we'll continue to provide these programs and extend them, and make sure we only charge community organisation rates not commercial,' Penaluna says. Werribee has been a 'standalone' VFL club since 2018, after affiliations with Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne. The latter endures through the North Melbourne Werribee Kangaroos in the VFLW and 'The Huddle', which has delivered programs to more than 50,000 young people since 2016 to strengthen education and employment outcomes. For Barlow, who coached the Bees to runners-up in 2023 before Allan brought home the club's second premiership last year, being standalone is crucial to success. In training together throughout summer, bonds and trust are built and players improve by challenging each other. Playing every home game at a different venue – from Wangaratta to Torquay – during the 2017 renovations fostered an 'anyone, anywhere, anytime' zeal. 'If they weren't standalone, some of the guys I played with just wouldn't play,' Barlow says. 'They'd go and try and find connection and community and togetherness at a local club.' He regards Shaun Mannagh, drafted by Geelong in 2023 aged 25, as 'the most club-oriented person I've met in football'. Loading With VFL rivals Williamstown and Port Melbourne to the east and Geelong to the west, Werribee must be creative in their recruiting. There are enough Geelong-based players to warrant a van (they spin a key to see who drives), while leagues to the north like Ballarat, Ovens and Murray and Goulburn Valley produce players who fuel the country vibe. Allan chuckles at the notion that developing footballers so well surely equates to a queue of Werribee wannabes stretching along Watton St. Even in a competitive market, he doesn't use recent draft success as a carrot. 'I would never say, 'Come here and we'll get you drafted.' If a club thinks they need them on their list they'll find a way. Our job is to help them be the best player and best person they can be. I know it's a cliche, but we're genuinely invested in doing that. 'With the five who've gone [to AFL clubs] in my time here, not once did they ask, 'What do I need to do to get drafted?' Their questions were around, 'What can I do to help our team be the best we can be?' It's about playing your role and doing it better than anybody else. That's why these guys are getting a chance.' Smiling again, Allan adds, 'We're big on cliches.' Hartigan's story offers a compelling blueprint. Overlooked as an 18-year-old after trying to be something he wasn't, he spent three years at Werribee 'and just went back to what I was good at, which was nullifying opponents'. Eventually, Adelaide identified a need in defence, 'and I was in the right place, right time, playing my role'. He played 135 games for the Crows and Hawthorn. The cliche won out. Barlow, whose introduction to the local community after signing to play in 2008 featured a walk through town in 37-degree heat wearing the mascot's tiger suit, praises the role on-field leaders have longed played. Initially it was the likes of Dom Gleeson, James Podsiadly, Teghan Henderson, and upon his post-AFL return Michael Sodomaco, Nick Coughlan, Tom Gribble. Of today's crop, Dom Brew's great frustration at being overlooked time and again is matched internally by gratitude for what he does for his teammates. 'Knocked back draft after draft, and he keeps turning up,' Hartigan says. 'He drives standards really hard.' All are quick to note the club isn't just producing players. Barlow's football journey moved to North Melbourne last season, where he is head of development. Melbourne Storm's chief medico Rebecca Beaton was club doctor for six years. The Brisbane Lions' VFL coach Ben Hudson vaulted from Werribee to Adelaide aged 24. Former fitness coach Johann Billsborough runs health and performance for the Dallas Mavericks. Analysts, psychologists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, even a ticketing coordinator have been prepped for bigger things. Alastair Clarkson's first senior coaching post was with Werribee in 2000. ' Flynn Young has gone to Carlton [in the mid-season draft], he'll have been greeted by three ex-Werribee people who work there now,' Penaluna says. 'There's two at North where Zac Banch has walked into.' Loading This production line can be problematic. Banch's first VFL game for North Melbourne last weekend happened to be back at Chirnside Park; he kicked three. Werribee, with fresh holes to fill, have slipped to 12th midway through their premiership defence. 'If the worst thing that happens is you lose guys to a higher lever, it's not a bad position to be in,' Allan says. 'Seeing how happy they are to get a crack at their dream offsets any frustration you have of losing them.'
