WAROONA’S Robyn Sutton has described her four day stay in
Melbourne as the “trip of a lifetime” after edging out nearly 300 other
nominees in WA football’s 2009 RAC Volunteer of the Year Award.
While most people would jump at the chance to fly to Melbourne and experience the AFL Grand Final for free, it took Mrs Sutton and her husband a week to decide as neither had left the state or travelled on an aeroplane before.
After two near ‘evacuations’ from husband Gary, Mrs Sutton conceded the flight wasn’t as bad as they thought and said they were “definitely going to go back to Melbourne for an Eagles game”.
On their first morning in Melbourne, the Suttons attended a morning tea with Volunteer of the Year Award winners from other States at Etihad Stadium. Robyn was privileged to meet David Parkin and Kevin Sheedy, who spent the morning chatting with the group.
“Kevin wanted to know where our footy journey had come from,” Robyn said. “He talked to everyone around the table and was interested to hear what their backgrounds were.” Robyn was chuffed when Kevin said “you possibly live in the best part of Australia” as he knew where Waroona was.
When asked what the highlight of her trip was, Robyn said walking in the Grand Final parade was certainly an honour. “I don’t know what the biggest highlight was. There were thousands of people there lining the streets and above us. When they saw the seven of us, people clapped and called out to us”.
Robyn excitedly detailed how she sat next to Hawthorn great Peter Hudson at the official AFL lunch on Grand Final day and explained how faces such as Leigh Matthews and Bob Skilton surrounded her on nearby tables.
“The lunch was really a who’s who, where legends get invited and you see people you’d only see on TV,” Robyn said. The lunch was held in the Olympic Room at the MCG where close to 600 guests attended.
Overall Robyn described her experience as being treated like royalty. “I’m very appreciative of the WAFC, the RAC and the AFL. I would like to thank the like of Neale Fong and the WAFC/RAC Staff responsible for the award. Basically, all the people who contributed to making this the trip of a lifetime.”
Mrs Sutton said she had no idea at all about being nominated by fellow club member Kerry Shore and only realised when she received a call saying she’d been named the Peel District finalist as one of 17 award finalists in WA.
The overall RAC Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Robyn at the Sandover Medal count by West Coast Eagles coach John Worsfold and Fremantle coach Mark Harvey, along with RAC Executive General Manager Motoring Mike Heath.
“Everyone kept saying I should prepare a speech but I didn’t. I was quite relaxed at the table until I heard my name called,” she said.
