Grievance Procedure / Conflict Resolution

SFC highly values its Coaches, Runners, Team Managers, Trainers, and other volunteers that contribute to getting players participating and the general running of our club and its facilities. All these people are VOLUNTEERS and make personal sacrifices to provide support to our players and the club. We expect that all Volunteers are treated with respect and support from players, families, and spectators.

Our Coaches and team support volunteers are dedicated individuals who make decisions not only regarding individual players, but also make decisions whilst considering the team, the club, and the leagues expectations. This is not an easy task! Sometimes a decision may appear to have a short-term negative consequence for an individual but an overall positive outcome for the team. We encourage that you discuss this with your child and assist them in understanding and developing awareness of team decisions, managing success and failures, whilst also fostering resilience.

Please be supportive of our coaches and support team volunteers and provide any positive and constructive feedback or encouragement along the way. We also ask that you respect coaching decisions and allow our coaches and team support volunteers to be responsible for providing feedback to the players and teams during games and training sessions. Coaching from the sidelines can be detrimental to player development and team cohesiveness. Coaching from the sidelines can also cause mixed messages to occur and interfere with game plans and confuse our players. We do encourage you to support the team and provide positive encouragement during games. We ask that you refrain from providing negative feedback directly to our coaches and support teams as they are volunteers and without them, we are unable to function.  If, however you have any issues that needs to be addressed or resolved we require that the following process will be adhered to:

1. We encourage that if any grievances arise that you take the time to process the issue and sleep on it first.
2. Please do not approach our Coaches or Team Support volunteers directly during your teams allocated preparation and game day timeslots. Our Coaches and team support volunteers are encouraged not to deal with grievances during game day operations or training sessions.
3. All grievances should be directed to Junior Development Coordinator, Philip Eatts via email (p.eatts@icloud.com).
4. If there is a conflict of interest, then please contact a fellow Colts Committee Member on the provided contact numbers on page 2.
5. The Junior Development Coordinator (or other Colts Committee Member) will follow up with further discussions surrounding the issue with all parties involved and endeavor to resolve the issue.
6. Any grievances that are of a serious nature will be escalated to the Colts Committee or General Committee for further discussion and to assess if further action above the attempted resolution is required to be taken.
7. The SFC Committee is the highest level of escalation of grievance issues. Note that any issues that may occur that are at a higher level will be resolved in line with the GSFL, GSFLW, SANFL, SANFLW or AFL / AFLW policies if required.

Please ensure that you follow this procedure as any issues or grievances raised outside of this may not be dealt with. This procedure ensures that issues are managed appropriately, accordingly, and fairly and that communication is transparent with all required parties involved.