From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host, Sam Colley.
Hello everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
Having that perspective really gives me the passion to want to play a blind football game myself with other players who want to become a blind football player. So I really feel like if I can expand that word out there, that we can play blind football together and enjoy the game to help the future of the game, I really feel that's important.
Welcome to the program. Kicking off the show this week, we've got a discussion with Sebastian. He's been a coach and a referee in the world of blind football for quite some time. You may have heard his voice on Talking vision and Vision sports in the past, but he's back to talk to us all about a national blind
football series which recently took place. Then after that conversation with Sebastian, I'm joined by a group of friends from the Vision Australia office in Brisbane who are heading off to the track for vision next March in New Zealand to raise vital funds for Vision Australia. So if you'd love to hear a bit more about the track, make sure to stay tuned. I hope you enjoy this week's
episode of Talking Vision. Sebastian Petrovich is a sorted referee, coach and player involved in blind football in Australia, and he's here to chat to me all about not only the recent national series which took place in Melbourne, but also to spread the word about blind football and to encourage people around the country to get involved. Sebastian, welcome back to Talking Vision. Thanks so much for your time.
Oh, it is great to be in here again and thank you very much for having me.
Now, you've been up to quite a fair bit lately. Tell us a bit about the national series that's been going on. Oh, it's.
Been amazing series. We had a national series for the Australian national team, the blind football team. And the great thing was they had two series of games to get through, and we completed the second one just recently out of the Essendon campus there for the bombers, where we've got
the complex set up for the actual match. When we set it up and looking back and just going over the two series, we had South Melbourne lose the first game, you know, one nil against a Brisbane team that was made up of, you know, the Sydney players as well and players from interstate. So yeah it went well. The second game was a two nil victory for South Melbourne you know. So it was they took out the two one aggregate of the series and they took out the
championship for the national blind series. So it was a big congratulations for the South Melbourne team which I'm familiar with the locals here who do training sessions. And it was great to be a part of it and also to see that big improvement in the match experience.
And what was your role in particular in the national series? I understand you've been a blind football referee for quite some time. What sort of things were you involved with over the weekend?
I normally go there and we spend two nights and help with assisting with the coaching side, but this time in the last time I was there just for the match as an official referee. So I went there just to make sure that the match was safe, making sure that the game is played through the updated rules and making sure that I was there just this time for the official referee role and helping assist the new referee who was there learning both games, the first and last,
and he was there last year. So yeah, I was here. This final match was just to focus on the final game and make sure that I'm focused in on that. So yeah, my role at this time was to get through it safely and it was good.
And Sebastian, I understand you were involved in setting up a Braille pitch for some blind football players in the past. Tell us about.
That. Sam, I had a great, great support from Vision Australia. I come up with a great idea for the players who play blind football, and the idea around was to give confidence to the blind athletes, particularly in the blind football pitch. So I contacted Vision Australia, who has a
special equipment. It's a special machine where they do the braille, and I was fascinated about how I can develop a pitch that's 20 by 40 with the lines and everything, and the wording of each section of the pitch, and to break it down into for details. When a player uses their hands on the pitch on, say, the penalty area, it would say penalty area six metres and then the eight metre penalty area would have an information of. This is where the penalty area is with the braille and
the markings on the pitch. So the idea around that was when these blind athletes who are new to the game and they're coming into the match situation, they've already got mapped in their head, you know, roughly where it is.
But then when they fill the Braille court and they've got their own personalised braille pitch of the football pitch, it just gives them that confidence and they can go away home and study the pitch in the measurements, because in the blind football pitch measurements, it's very important to know where exactly you're on the pitch by meters, whether the guide is telling you, oh, you're five meters away, you've got to shoot or you're at the ten meter mark and now it's six and eight. Now the player
is ready to shoot. But the more they studied that pitch and they got that personalised Braille pitch, I just feel like it was a no brainer. But also for them, they loved it. You know, we've got a lot of players in the national team, Australia that I do individual coaching with and they I handed them that after developing it with Vision Australia and they really, really appreciated it. I've got one for myself because as you know, I can see it and it's got green and white, the
pitch lining, but the vision impaired can't see it. So they've got the Braille. So it works both way when even I'm instructing another referee where to be on the pitch, I use it as well. So it's really multi-purpose, but also for the future. May be tennis can be used in blind sports Braille pitches as well. And that was the other idea around other blind sports as well.
As I've said, you've been involved as a referee for quite some time. That's taken you all around the world. As I understand you've been in Japan for a fair bit, Australia, obviously, but what sort of got you into being a referee for blind soccer in the first place?
Oh, it was, you know. This passion I had for learning something new, you know, and being a soccer athlete and a footballer. It gave me this curiosity to become a qualified referee. So, you know, going to Japan and learning how high level they are and seeing them do their competitions there. It made me really, really passionate about learning this new role as a blind football referee. So I just really wanted to learn. I wanted to become qualified.
And once I did, a lot of these opportunities opened up because no one in Australia has the qualification to officiate the games. So I loved it. And, you know, I just I grabbed it with both hands and I basically wanted to be that ambassador here where I could teach the local players of what it takes to play in a competition game and to play in the game, which is quite so many different things, you know, to learn. So yeah, it was a great achievement for myself.
And on that some teaching point, you've been quite heavily involved with some physical education over the past little while. I believe you've gone around to a few schools, but there's one in particular that's close to your heart. So, you know, tell us a bit about the education work that you've been doing. You know, teaching kids all about blind football.
Oh, it has been a phenomenal, you know, last month and also over the years. But recently Trinity College, which is where I had a role as a coach there with youth development and seniors, but they've asked me to come in and and educate them on the football players. They're in the sports section. What's blind? Football. And, you know, very quickly they took it on board and they started learning the game and what it is, and we started playing a two versus two game, you know, 2V2 and
there was 3 or 4 different classes. And I have to thank Mike Moreira there, who works really, really hard with the sports students there. And he was actually he was asking me a couple years ago and just through Covid we couldn't get out there, but the kids loved it. And you know, they want more and I came back and I really feel this plant the seed in different
schools around Australia and, you know, Melbourne. I'd love to go out touring and getting out to the schools and raising that awareness of what blind football is and, and how someone who loves football can get involved as a volunteer and how they can pass that knowledge onto someone else. You know, who they might know, who's vision impaired and even participate in the blind football game. You don't have to be vision impaired or have no sight at all.
You can actually help our development for the future and help us play games. As an athlete wanting to play a blind football game, and this is something that they do in Japan, you know, they have two players participate in the game to help there be more games played. And that's all about the game experience and stuff like that.
So that's my ultimate goal is to get out to the schools like Trinity and even some other schools, and see if we can create a team or a training session on a regular basis, where we can actually eventually help develop our seniors, play more games because we need it's so hard getting into state. Players come to Melbourne
all the time for the camp. So yeah, and even myself as an ex athlete, I feel that my passion not only is for refereeing, but you have to be an all rounder coach, the referee, learning the guide roles and being a guide, a volunteer. So having that perspective really gives me the passion to want to play a blind football game myself with other players who want to
become a blind football player. So I really feel like if I can expand that word out there, that we can play blind football together and enjoy the game to help the future of the game, I really feel that's important now.
So what sort of things are in the pipeline in that line of thinking over the next few sort of weeks and months? Are there camps in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth or even Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart? What sort of blind football things are in the pipeline for people to head along to in the next little while to get involved? It's a.
Great question. There is one. From what I've done, a bit of study, there's one coming up in, I believe, Hobart, which is all abilities or vision impaired day. I think it could be coming up on the 27th or 28th. So that's something to look out for in Hobart, where they're promoting blind sports and stuff like that. That's coming up.
And we have an all abilities program at South Melbourne where we normally train every two weeks, and therefore the local Melbourne based players, and that gives them an opportunity to help with their skills and stuff like that and play and train because it's off season at the moment, we're still putting some plans into place to see what's going to be the plan for the new year, but I always try to help mentor these players who I've trained in individual coaching, and help them realise that you've
got to keep yourself in tune with training all the time. You know, the more you're touching the ball, the more you're running, the more you're shooting, the more you're practicing. So you've got that edge and you're already in front. So make sure that you're not losing too much touch in the game. But great question Sam, with interstate and stuff like that. They will have their national coaches, local coaches, where they might do their own local training sessions for
their own blind players. And we've got a lot of women now participating in the blind football as well. And I think it was just Friday passed this Friday that they had a national camp, which is great news.
And yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah.
Bess, who's the head coach there? She runs a camp. I wasn't able to get out there, but they had a national camp there in Adelaide, which I was just in touch with. John. He's a Japanese coach who's got more than ten years experience in Japan with youth and also seniors. And I recommended him come down to Australia and help support our staff. And he came down to Australia and now he's he's recently been appointed the first Japanese head coach for Australian national team, which is excellent news.
Yeah that's fantastic.
Yeah. So he's now traveling around and helping out as much as he can with the players and stuff like that and keeping his his awareness of who's there and what's going on. So it's a great asset for Australia to have such an experienced coach to come and live in Australia and help our national team.
Yeah, that's fantastic and it's really good to say. And that's not only just in blind football, but I understand people from Japan and Iran, you know, absolute heavyweights of the Asian Football Confederation getting involved with Australian football. You've got referees in the A-League like Alireza Afghani from Iran,
a fantastic referee. So it's really great to see that's really permeating through other areas of the Australian football landscape now, said what's in store for the national team over the next little while? What sort of games will they be playing, or are they sort of ramping up for any new tournaments or qualifiers or anything of that nature?
Great question. We've had the World Cup that we weren't able to get out to in England. All right. But now that the national series here has been completed, we leaving all the planning up to the coach and we've got David Connolly who's doing a great job again with the coordinating and stuff like that with the players and seeing, you know, what's going to happen for next year and
what the goals are. So nothing exactly yet put in place, but I'm sure their plans moving forward to making more games and going to maybe international tournaments and maybe even Japan one day with the connections with June. Okay. And June's. Yeah, June's got good connections and I've got great connections there in Japan. And I was actually invited to go this time around to the Brave Cup tournament championship in Japan. But it's not looking to it's very short notice, so
I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure if I'm going to head out there, but leading next year, I think there's going to be a lot of opportunities for national players to compete for their spots and maybe possibly go abroad, and maybe even a country could even come to Australia one day.
Oh, that'd be fantastic.
Yeah. To help us. Yeah, yeah.
Well, definitely watch this space for sure, Seb. And you know, you're always welcome back on talking vision. If things crop up that you'd love to talk about, we're very keen to hear about all the latest developments in the world of blind football in Australia. So definitely keep in touch. So listeners out there watch this space. You'll definitely be
hearing Seb's voice down the track for sure. Now, just before we wrap up, Seb, where can people head to find out a bit more about blind football in Australia and perhaps get involved and just learn a bit more about the game?
I think the best thing is, is, you know, get to know the players, ask them in person. We've got now Vision Australia now this is a huge help for the audience to know what's going on. You can reach Blind Sports Australia which is the BSA. I think it's called the Blind Sports Australia, which is important. They've got all the equipments and stuff like that. We've got Football Victoria, who's helped us with helping us run and the all abilities sector now the blind football. So they've got also
some sort of promotional stuff on their web pages. Football Victoria and we've got Blind Sports Victoria who always doing their stuff running programs. So I'm sure that they've got they're a good one too. So everyone's working together to help promote. But yeah, if this can spread that word out there and get someone interested in getting me out to their school and trying to help promote the blind football,
I'm happy to do it. I've got a lot of experience in the field and we, you know, I'm happy to go out to any school in Australia to start the Australian Blind Football Project, which I'm very passionate about, to raise the awareness in what is blind football.
Now, just to wrap up, said, give us a couple of websites and emails there for people to head along to.
You could contact myself where I could maybe possibly send you all the exact emails and details. Yeah. Sebastian at Better Sports Abilities to contact myself to send you the details of anything that's in particular with what you are asking and things like that. Facebook pages. We've got Blind Sports Australia, I think it is Blind Sports Victoria. Our Football Victoria probably is a good one. Yes.
Head, shoulder.
Yeah, football Victoria would have a lot of information on the websites and stuff like that.
So that email again for people out there, that's Sebastian at Better Sports abilities.com to find out more about blind football and for Sebastian to point you in the right direction. I've been speaking today with Sebastian Petrovich, blind football referee, educator and coach for the Australian national blind football team, talking to us about not only the national series which recently took place, but all things blind football in Australia now and in the future. Sebastian, thank you so much
for your time today. It was a pleasure to have you back on the show. Oh, it's a.
Pleasure to be here once again, and hopefully there's more times in the future for all the children out there and adults and parents, you know, do your best to learn more. And the more people have come support our games is a great thing and a great achievement for our sport. So thank you Sam for having me in the studio again and it's going to be an excellent future ahead.
I'm Sam Colley and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio, associated stations of RPI and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that interview there with Sebastian Petrovich. If you missed any part of that interview with Sebastian or you'd love to hear the interview again, the interview will be available on the Vision Australia Radio website as an interview highlight. Or you can find this episode and all past episodes of Talking Vision through your
favourite podcast platform, or through the Vision Australia library. Our next bunch of guests are all heading off to the trek for Vision in New Zealand, taking place in March to raise vital funds for Vision Australia's Quality Living groups and Vision Australia Radio. Their names are large, Emma, Amy and Erin and they join me now from the Vision Australia office in Brisbane. Welcome everyone to Talking Vision. Great to have you all.
Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thanks so.
Much. Now let's go around the room and just introduce yourselves before we jump in.
I'm Jemma, a speech pathologist on the children's team in Brisbane. Hello, I'm Amy, I'm a occupational therapist, also on the children's team in Brisbane. And Lara, I'm also an occupational therapist in the children's team in Brisbane as well. And my name is Erin. And I'm also in the children's team in Brisbane.
Oh, cool. And how did you find out about the track?
Yeah, absolutely. So funny story. It kind of started. I was in the office and Gemma came over and was like, oh, did you see the post about the track for vision on The Hub? And so the more we looked into it and chatted with our colleagues, Laura and Erin as well, we looked a little bit more into it and decided that we would take it on and join the track. Yeah,
and then this is Erin. Actually, Amy, Laura and Gemma had already signed up and they were talking about it in the lunchroom and they were, oh my God, you need to come along. And I signed up very impulsively. I had no idea when it was no idea where we were going. I just went through my emails and was like, I'm going on this trip. Yes.
And what sort of info have you found out about the track for vision? In the time between all finding out about it and up to now, what sort of things can you tell us about the track?
Yeah, so since my impulsive signing up, I have learnt a little bit about it. We're trekking through New Zealand in early March next year, and I don't think I would have signed up if I'd known, but we're actually hiking with our CEO.
Yes. That's Ron. Yeah.
And yes, with Ron. And it'll be, I think, a wonderful five day walk through parts of New Zealand. Yeah, the kilometres or lap. We've also learnt that on the fundraising side of it. So you know, along with the 60 kilometre trek were also raising money to support the Vision Australia, Quality Living Groups and Vision Australia radio. So we've got a goal. The four of us combined of $14,000. So a big goal that we're working towards for our trek as well.
All right. And it's quite exciting to, you know, have some local knowledge from Ron on that hike through New Zealand. And there's some quite exciting things that I'm sure he'll be able to little bits of info he'll be able to share. So that's that's pretty exciting to be heading along with, with a local, so to speak.
Yeah, absolutely. I think he was right. Oh, grew up in Wellington and that's our last day of the trip. We'll walk throughout Wellington guided by Ron, which is yeah, really nice. I think that'll be special.
Have you all been training together every week, or have you been all sort of doing your own thing and on your own sort of little individualised training regimen, so to speak?
Sam, to be honest, we we haven't really done much training at all yet. Oh, okay. We had our first team walk up mount just on the weekend, and I think it went as well as a first training session. And obviously we probably spent more time getting breakfast at the cafe at the top and we spent walking, but we've still got something like 22 weeks until we get there. So we'll definitely get a lot more practice in before then. We'll step up our training from from here on there.
Okay. For sure. Have you all sort of done much walking in the past, or is this the first time where you've gone on this sort of hike of this magnitude?
Yeah. So I have actually done one trek in New Zealand before, but that was quite a few years ago, and it's the only one I've done. And since then I can't say I've done so much walking. I think it's similar between us. We might play some sport or go for a walk with our dogs on the weekend. Ends, but a 60 kilometer hike is definitely a step up from that. So yeah, yeah, it'll be exciting to see how we go. Definitely challenging, but it'll be fun. Yeah.
And you know, what are you all looking most forward to?
This is Laura. I think I'm really looking forward to really raising more money and meeting our fundraising goal. That's really been the focus for us at the moment, because it's a it's a large sum of money that we're trying to raise. We've held a few fundraising parties and we've got plans in the, in the works for like a trivia night and sausage sizzles and, you know, talking at community events and things like that. So I think it will just be so rewarding to see the outcome
of those fundraising efforts. That's what I'm really looking forward to. Yeah, it's Amy here. I think the same as Lara. I'm looking forward to sort of reaching the goal of our fundraising target. And I also think I'm looking forward to also reaching the goal of at the end of doing 60 K's. I think looking forward to the satisfaction that that will bring as well. We're hoping we can celebrate with a local wine at one of the. Yeah, that.
Sounds like a great plan.
But I think we've also been reflecting on our roles and the work that we do in the children's team, because while we're not fundraising directly for our team or the services we provide, we still get to see every day the impact that it has. So we're really motivated, and it's been really cool for us to meet different people and different businesses in the community. It's been a challenge for us in terms of connecting with previously strangers, so that's been really exciting for us.
And just finally tell us a bit about the purpose behind the trek and the difference that the funds raise will make to the quality living groups and the Vision Australia radio services. Did you know much about the quality of living groups and Vision Australia Radio before you got involved with the trek? Have you found out a bit more about them since you've gotten involved and looked into it a bit more?
Yeah, this is Erin. I actually started with Vision Australia six months ago, so I've been hearing about, yeah, all the different services that we offer and that we have. So, you know, I've heard about the radio, I've kind of heard about the quality of living groups, but I never really put all the pieces together on what they were. But yeah, I think it's the quality of living groups in particular, such an important program and service that we're
able to provide. And the funds that we're raising go towards such an important thing. And I think it's nice that there's no kind of pediatric quality living group at the moment, I don't think. But it's nice to know that when children and young people kind of leave our pediatric team, there is something like that for them. When they kind of turn 18 and join the adult team,
they have this beautiful program there for them. Yeah. And I think also with the radio, something that shocked me in learning more about the Vision Australia radio was that there's over 350,000 listeners across the radio monthly. So I think being able to yeah, I think being able to raise funds and support the radio through our trek is, yeah,
really awesome. And like Jemma and Erin said, even though we're in the pedes team, it's really nice to sort of look across our client's lifespan and see the services that they might be able to access in the future, like the radio or like the quality living groups. It's really, really special.
And if you'd like to donate to Lara, Jemma, Amy and Aaron's trek for vision, head to fundraise dot Vision australia.org. That's fundraising Vision australia.org and search for Trek for Vision or Lara Jemma with AJ, Amy and Erin to make a donation. I've been speaking today with Jemma, Amy, Lara and Erin who are all heading off for the trek for vision early next year in New Zealand. It was
great to have a chat with you all today. Thank you so much for your time and all the best for your training and for the trek.
Thank you so much. Thanks.
And that's all we have time for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a production of Vision Australia Radio. Thanks to all involved with putting the show together. And remember we love your feedback and comments. So please do get in touch on Talking Vision at Vision australia.org. That's talking vision all. One word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's Sam Colley saying bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 308 4746. That's one 380 474 W6 or by visiting Vision australia.org. That's Vision australia.org.