HEYWOOD Football Netball Club’s Natasha Moore has made plenty of significant contributions to the club over the past few years, with those contributions receiving recognition from as high up as AFL Victoria, with the state’s governing body featuring her in their Local Legends series last week.

Moore, who has three children (Jensen, Eliza and Lewis) at the club and her current formal role is as their secretary, said while she’s honoured to receive this kind of recognition, it was never something she sought out.

“To be honest I was pulled in to getting involved just by the fact that my kids are all playing football and netball here,” she said.

“You know how it goes you start off by doing bits and pieces and then you’re doing more and more until eventually you’re the secretary of the club.

“I’ve had some good role models over the years and basically the message has always been that if there’s a way to help then you get in and help.

“It wasn’t even really intentional to become so involved, it’s just you see a need and you find a way to help fix it.”

Moore said the key initiative she has taken on since arriving at the club is seeking to integrate the junior football program with the rest of the club, saying that when she first arrived there was a sense of division at times.

“As a family we came to the club and realised there was a need to build up its juniors, and to be honest when we first came here, we couldn’t believe how divided it was,” she said.

“We found there was no real connection between the whole club, and we could see there was a massive need to change that culture to make it inclusive for families.

“I do think we’ve been able to achieve that, we’ve managed to get an under-17 football side up for the first time in a number of years, and even over the past few weeks we’ve had more kids come through and want to sign up and play.

“Some of the parents will explain that their kid doesn’t have many skills and they hope that isn’t an issue, and I always say that’s the least of our concerns, we just want as many kids out there playing sport as possible.”

Moore said the club has had to band together and become very close-knit in recent times after a pair of tragic passings within the community.

“A few years back our junior football coach Mark ‘Millsy’ Mills passed away suddenly, that was a very hard time for the kids they all just loved him so much,” she said.

“Shortly after that someone by the name of Jamie Mathys got in touch, he had been a friend of ‘Millsy’ and he said he was interested in coming down to coach the side.

“It was pretty amazing considering he didn’t really have any other connection to the club other than his friend had been the coach here, but he has been great for the kids.

“We also had the devastating loss of Lauchlon Humphries (who was affectionately referred to as ‘Ranga’) recently, it was really important for us to rally around his family and the juniors.”

Moore said while she has received the recognition and plaudits of AFL Victoria, there are plenty of others at the club who work just as tirelessly as she does to get the club to where it is.

“I think of someone like our president Evan Bott who also plays and coaches, and there are plenty of others like him,” she said.

“I think all of us as a club feel a sense of responsibility to these kids, I often remind my own kids that not all of their teammates are fortunate enough to have stable homes like they do, and this club needs to be a place where those kids can go to feel welcome and at home.”