Belinda Foreman, Tahmoor | Bulls Member of 3 years | Family Membership
I’m Belinda Foreman, and we’re from Tahmoor, you know, in the sticks. We’ve been Bulls members for the past three years now and we absolutely love it. Like, it’s a family. It’s definitely one of the best decisions that we’ve made as a family.
Being a wide age group of a family, my eldest is 17, my youngest is 5, finding something that all of us can do is hard when you’re trying to get everybody to enjoy something. At the Bulls, we most definitely all have a ball, no matter what the age group is. We have Nan come along, I have my niece and nephew come along, and we’re all members.
It started with my son, Hudson. He’s 9, and he’s always been soccer obsessed, but a free Bulls clinic in the school holidays was a big moment for him. He absolutely loved it. We met a couple of the players who came out, and Harrison Sawyer sat there and took the time with Hudson, talking to him, encouraging him with his soccer. And he said, “oh, we’ve got a game tomorrow night, why don’t you come and see?” He also explained to us that they (the Bulls) have the Junior Herd, which makes the children free. And we were like, oh yeah, well, why not?
So we did. That was our first game, three years ago, I believe it was a Jets game, and it changed our whole outlook. It’s not something that I honestly would have probably sought out. But it was just the fact that Hudson was like, “oh mum, can we go? Can we go?”, so we went over and we watched the game, and it was amazing. The atmosphere, the vibe. And then at the end of the game Hudson was all excited and wanted to go over and see the players, and Sawyer recognised us. That was a highlight for that little boy.
“It put a spark in him that every parent wants to see. That was the start. That was our beginning.”
We have been to nearly every game since. We did not miss a game last season. Yeah — it’s a way of life for us now.
That first year, we just paid per week as a family. And then the next year, we were like, no, we need to be members. This is a family that we want to be a part of. Because everybody knows everyone there. You walk in the gates and you have people that you recognise from the week before, and they recognise you, and it’s, “oh, hey, how are you?” You build those friendships. Hudson’s done many of the Bulls clinics since, and that has brought on friendships with the organisers of the clinics, who are at the games regularly. Even the photographers recognise you coming back every week. As I say, it becomes a family.
That’s something I love about the Bulls clinics. We train at Bargo, and it’s a small community, we have 130 kids in our club, but those kids are the next generation. The clinics get kids in from far and wide and give them experiences that you don’t get in the small country towns. The opportunities that the Bulls are giving to the kids is what got us in in the beginning.
Hudson has since had the opportunity to hand the ball over to the refs at the beginning of one of the games, and that was a highlight. His goal is to be an A-League player. So to start that journey, and to see the fire in his belly that we get every week from coming to the game, it just inspires him.
Midway through last season, we put together a little photo collage of all of Hudson’s photos from the beginning with Sawyer and with Vickery, and he wrote a little message on the back for them. Watching him hand those over, they signed some for him, and we’ve got them up on the wall in our lounge room. That was a moment where the inspiration, he will never forget it. As a mum, you want that. You want them to be able to have goals in life. For him, that was a big one. That was a dream made that day. And then at the end of last season, Sawyer gave Hudson his boot and signed it, and Vickery gave him his boots and signed them too. And they recognise him by name and all of that. It’s just beautiful. It’s a wonderful mum moment.
“It gives us that place to go every week that all the kids are going to enjoy. The families all getting together – the atmosphere, the vibe there is great.”
There are always all the activities at the gate when you come in, the face painting, the whole lot, even the players coming out and signing autographs. And at the end of the game, when the players come out and they greet their fans, they get to know the people that are there every week. That, in itself, gets you coming back. Honestly, you can go to a league game and you don’t get that interaction that you do with a soccer game.
Our matchday is all of us getting our jerseys on – we have all the jerseys. It’s the face paint at the door and the getting the signatures. But one thing: every single game, we are down there congratulating the players, whether they win, whether they lose. Doesn’t matter to us. We’re there to support them and to support the club. And that’s our thing.
I’m very competitive, and I’m one of the ones on the sideline that’s yelling and cheering them on. But some people get really disappointed when you lose, whereas I’m like, you win some, you lose some. It’s part of it. You still go over at the end of the game and you say congratulations, because in life, it’s teaching the kids too.
People that just come to the odd game don’t realise it. Even that bloody 45 degree day, oh God, that was a shocker. But we were there.
To anyone thinking about it: do it. Don’t hesitate. It’s something that is affordable and something that you can do as a family regularly. You go out to the movies and you spend $300, or you can get a family membership for a season and it’s around $500.
“It’s a no-brainer for me. It’s a family that you want to be a part of, and a group that you want to be a part of.”
