Case Studies

AFL Academy – Safety & Compliance Requirements

My role in the the Academy is the industry expert side of things. I’ve been playing in the AFL for ten years, this is my eleventh season. So—I’ve seen all elements of what makes up a football club and I’ve integrated that into an educational style. We came in here and it was very bland. Just a big open space, not that conducive to education. We needed to knock down walls, get a greater space, create a whole new classroom and we only had a short amount of time to do that which was the school holidays period.

Our needs were mandated by the government in a lot of ways; we needed to have doors which were wide enough for wheelchair access; we needed safety keypads so every student had their own access in and out.

Safety and compliance were two really big reasons why we chose ARC. They have that history of working with other really big organisations, which are very much compliance based. We got the ARC team to come in and really adapt it to what we needed. Now whenever the boys come in, they’re happy to come into the educational space not just wanting to come in and go to the gym and kick the footy all day. They’re actually happy to come into the classroom which is really inviting and really conducive to education.

ARC has that real family feel that they cared so much about us as an organisation; as a job; especially with our entertaining space. We didn’t want it to be a really boxy, enclosed environment and so adding two cavity sliders, which we didn’t necessarily think of in the first place; was a really great innovative touch from their side of things. They went over and above what we could have dreamed for the space and we’re so happy that the space looks and feels the way it does now.

From a business perspective. It’s nice to know that you’ve got that reliability. We were really pleased with the way ARC stuck to a timeline and delivered what they said they were going to in that time.