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Auskick is inclusive

Learn about what we are doing to support all young people to play. In the video below, a parent talks about getting their child into Auskick

Footy is inclusive of young people of all abilities

Here at the AFL, an important part of our purpose is to progress the game so that everyone can benefit from its heritage and possibilities. We want to make sure our great game is inclusive and reflective of our community, and that young people with disability can participate in their own way.

We’ve worked with the AllPlay team since 2015 to understand barriers to community participation. We’ve developed strengths-based and evidence-informed tools and resources to help:

  • young people with disability be included at footy
  • caregivers support their child’s participation
  • coaches develop skills to provide opportunities for young people of all abilities

AllPlay’s research on disability inclusion in Auskick has been of real benefit to coaches. The team has worked with a number of national sporting organisations for people with disability to make sure the tools and resources are comprehensive and accessible, such as:

  • Disability Sport Australia
  • Special Olympics Australia
  • Deaf Sports Australia
  • Blind Sports Australia
  • Sports Inclusion Australia

These tools and resources are now available to the community here on our website.

Hi, my name’s Gavin. This is my son, Ethan. He lives with DCD - fine motor skills and neurological disorder.

We got into NAB AFL Auskick at a young age because we got told to look at his fine motor skills, and we love football anyway, and it was a perfect match for Ethan. He's just a totally different kid out there on the field. He just brightens up his day when he’s out there on the field chasing the ball around.

The things that engaged Ethan in Auskick was a team environment. From day one, Ethan loved football. He loves learning new drills. Auskick helps kids with DCD with all different textures of balls – hard, soft, whatever. It helps with the fine motor skills.

Getting Ethan involved in NAB AFL Auskick was great not just for him, but us as a family. It’s grown us as a family and loving the sport.

He’s actually coaching now, the year eights at our local footy team. The year eights love him and they wanted him back again this year, so he’s back there again this year. Everyone’s having a bit of a win, sort of thing, and you never know, he might be a coach for the AFL one day.

AllPlay Footy is a joint initiative by Monash University and the AFL. AllPlay Footy was founded at Deakin University in 2015 and has been part of Monash Education since 2021. The AllPlay Footy content and resources presented here have been developed with people with lived experience of disability, consultants from National Sporting Organisations for People with Disability, psychologists and researchers, and are brought to you with funding from a Department of Social Services Information, Linkages and Capacity Building: Social and Community Participation Stream (2020-2021) grant. We aim to use language that is respectful to everyone.