About Alive and Kicking
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live ng anAd Kicki A STUDYGUIDE BY KA TY MA RRINER www.metromagazine.com.au www.theeducationshop.com.au Introduction This study guide to accompany Alive and Kicking (Steve Thomas, 2008) by Roar Film has been written for middle and senior secondary students. It provides information and suggestions for learning activities in English, Geography, The football club has always Alive and Kicking is a Physical Education and been the heartbeat of a rural celebration of the world of curriculum projects exploring community – a barometer of country football. the concepts of belonging and social wellbeing. If the local club community is going well, everyone in town Episode Guide Alive and Kicking is a four-part walks that little bit taller and no Episode One documentary series. Each matter where you finish on the Woodsdale isn’t a town, just a episode runs for thirty minutes. ladder, the beginning of each rag tag collection of small farms new season brings fresh hopes and a quaint 1940s hall. It’s About Alive and and dreams. sheep and turnip country, cold Kicking The communities of King Island, in winter and hot and dry King Island, Queenstown, Queenstown, Woodsdale and in summer. Woodsdale and the Tamar Beaconsfield and Beauty Point The Woodsdale football ground Valley. Four unique rural in the Tamar Valley, share a is known by opposition teams communities with one thing in belief in the importance of as the ‘sheep paddock’. common, a love of Australian fielding a football team and It consists of a couple of football. It’s a world of committing their all to making corrugated iron buildings and pleasure and pain, of hope and it a winning season. The an old scoreboard. The main redemption. Sometimes brutal. challenges of keeping the club feature of the clubrooms is Occasionally amazing. Always alive and kicking are many a huge wood furnace with passionate. In Tasmania football and varied but the efforts of a gaping mouth that can is alive and kicking. the players, coach, trainers, accommodate fence-post – Narrator committee and die hard sized firewood. supporters are rewarded when the town stops to watch the game. SCREEN EDUCATION 2 The heart of Woodsdale is Andrew ‘Gus’ Dean. Gus was the driving force behind reforming the club after it folded in the late 1990s. Gus has been playing football for twenty-eight years in Tasmania’s toughest leagues and it is starting to take a toll on him. For Gus, it’s time to decide whether or not to call Island Football Association had Flinders Island, and a form it a day. five teams but these days, three reversal by the previous year’s is all it can muster. Fishermen, bottom of the ladder team. Kaye Rowlands is the club farmers, cheese factory secretary and treasurer. She is Episode Three workers, meat workers, kelpers, also in charge of catering. Her high school teachers and The Tamar Cats were born out association with Woodsdale students make up the bulk of of the amalgamation between goes right back to the early days the three teams: Grassy, Currie archrivals, Beaconsfield and of the club. Kaye and the other and North. Beauty Point, two towns women of Woodsdale organize, separated by five kilometres bake and fundraise their way The island’s media contingent and a world of tradition. The through the football season. fuels the competition between club’s fortunes over the past few the three teams. Geoff French Episode One follows years have not been good and has been writing about King Woodsdale’s united and this has led to a decline in both Island football since the 1970s, unrelenting campaign to bring attendances and the amenities. Kathleen Hunter is the dynamo home a premiership cup. editor of the King Island Courier A new committee, led by Episode Two and Jan Van Ruiswyk films President Paul Filgate and Vice Presidents Chris Love and King Island is situated at the each match for the King Island Daryl Murfett, is attempting to western end of Bass Strait. Football Association. revive the Cats as a force in the Renowned for its monster Episode Two follows the King competition. Victor Marshall crayfish and fine dairy produce, Island Association through a is appointed as coach to lead King island also produces season that sees the revival of the team’s on-field revival. His a peculiarly hardy breed of the representative competition efforts go unrewarded as the footballer. In its heyday the King between King Island and team struggles to meet his demands early in the season. Eventually his persistence pays off and the team ‘clicks’, stringing together six wins in a row. The Cats’ chances of making it to the finals are looking good until Victor’s aggressive style of coaching clashes with the club’s family friendly philosophy. Episode Three follows the Tamar Cats as they confront the challenges of amalgamation and work hard to build a winning team. SCREEN EDUCATION 3 Episode Four The Queenstown Crows represent over 100 years of economic rationalization that has seen them become the last team in a town that once boasted ten clubs. They play on a unique gravel-surfaced oval, which nestles in the midst of a Episode Four follows the Roar Film develops concepts range of barren, blighted hills, fortunes of the Queenstown and content for interactive the result of deforestation and Crows as they strive for media, film and television. They localized acid rain. They club is the club’s first premiership have had extensive experience proud of the oval but their pride since 1994. in documentary and drama is not shared by opposition production as well as e-learning teams. The locals boast that it is About the and multimedia applications. the most feared football ground filmmakers Roar Film productions include in Australia. Real Life Water Rats, Albert’s My fascination with country Queenstown depends Chook Tractor, End of the football began as child in heavily on its copper mine, Game, The Tragedy and Myth of Gippsland in 1959 watching the which only twenty years ago the Tasmanian Tiger and Dust Yallourn Blues conquering all employed over 1500 miners. on my Shoes. before them in the Latrobe Valley Modernization has seen this League. To a young kid in the Alive and Kicking was produced number drop to less than 300 late sixties, watching the coach by Kath Symmons. and the new shift rosters have rant and rave during the three made it difficult for some of Using Alive and Kicking in the quarter time huddle was like those men to find time for the classroom peering into of the ‘valley of the football club. As the ranks of giants’. For the next thirty odd Teachers may select from the the men around the club have years, until my final year playing following activities to support thinned out, the brunt of work for Avoca in Tasmania’s Fingal students’ viewing and close around the club has fallen on Valley League in the mid 1980s, analysis of Alive and Kicking. women like Crows’ secretary, my enthusiasm never waned. Cheryl Gamble, and club trainer Robyn Faulds. – Steve Thomas SCREEN EDUCATION 4 Before viewing Alive and Kicking s&OOTBALL,OVEITORLOATHEIT 7HEREDOYOUSTAND7HY s@)TSONEWEEKATATIME s@)TSALLABOUTTHEONEPER centers.’ s@!CHAMPIONTEAMWILLALWAYS s#REATEAN!COLLAGEOFWORDS s7HATDOESAlive and Kicking beat a team of champions.’ and images that offers a tell us about the value of team s@4HERESALWAYSNEXTWEEK response to an idea explored SPORT in Alive and Kicking. Use Make a list of football clichés. s7HYDOTHEMENPLAY7HAT these responses to compose Ask students to share whether are their justifications for a class mural that reveals the they agree or disagree with the continuing to play despite concerns of the documentary. claims. THEIRAGEANDINJURIES s(OWDOTHESTORIESTOLDIN After viewing s7HATISTHEROLEOFACOACH Alive and Kicking influence Alive and Kicking Using the four episodes of your understanding of the series, create a list of the s$IDYOUENJOYTHESERIES BELONGINGANDCOMMUNITY skills and characteristics of a Endorse your response with s$OYOUHAVEAFAVOURITE RESPECTEDCOACH#OMPARE specific evidence from the EPISODE the coaches featured in Alive series. s7HATISTHESIGNIlCANCEOFTHE and Kicking. Whose style do TITLEOFTHESERIES s7HATTAGLINEWOULDYOUUSE YOUPREFER to promote Alive and Kicking s7HATARETHECENTRALCONCERNS s)TSTHECONTRIBUTIONSOF of Alive and Kicking sAlive and Kicking takes the women of King Island, the viewer to King Island, Queenstown, Woodsdale and Queenstown, Woodsdale the Tamar Valley that help the and the Tamar Valley. Find clubs to survive and thrive. these locations on a map $OYOUAGREE of Tasmania. Use print and s$ESCRIBETHESUPPORTER electronic texts to find out base of each team. What more about the locations. do we learn about their Close Analysis COMMITMENT s7ORKINGINAGROUPOFFOUR s+ICKTOKICK complete an analysis of what Divide the class into the communities featured two teams. in Alive and Kicking have in Team 1: Drawing on all four common and how they differ. episodes of the series, discuss Use a graphic organizer to the contribution that the local present your findings football club makes to the local s-AKENOTESABOUTEACHOFTHE community. teams featured in Alive and Team 2: Drawing on all Kicking. Use a table to make four episodes, discuss the a list of the team’s similarities contribution that the local and differences. community makes to the local football club. SCREEN EDUCATION 5 Each team takes it in turns to present their views to the class in the manner of a debate. s)SLOCALFOOTBALLAFAMILYAFFAIR Draw on all four episodes of Alive and Kicking to answer the question. s5PFORDISCUSSION Using the panel format of most winding lazily north towards What do the training scenes television shows about football, Tasmania’s midlands.’ tell you about the Woodsdale create a discussion of the – Narrator ,IONS following issues.