One person making waves behind the scenes is Yusuf Qaafow, Collingwood’s Multicultural Officer.
Qaafow, 25, works with people of various cultural backgrounds to help introduce them to the game of Australian Football.
“I take care of lots of people from different backgrounds and introduce them to AFL and give them the experience of attending a game,” he explains.
“I also take them on tours of our facilities and run clinics with them”.
His background is ideal for working at an elite sporting club. Qaafow currently plays basketball for the the Melbourne Tigers.
“I used to train with the Melbourne Tigers team when I was around 17 because Al Westover was my junior coach and playing when the great David Stiff (Collingwood’s High Performance Manager) was still playing, and Al gave me a chance to play with the team.”
Qaafow arrived in Australia 17 years ago and is of Somalian heritage. He took a liking to Collingwood from an early age, but says at the time of his arrival in the country that “the only English I knew was "twinkle twinkle little star”.
He is a keen advocate of Multicultural Round and enjoys mixing with Harry O’Brien, one of the AFL’s Multicultural Ambassador Program ambassadors.
“I think it's a very important round because it shows how far the game has come in terms of the players we have nowadays from different backgrounds.”
?Multicultural Officer Yusuf Qaafow and players Caolan Mooney, Paul Cribbin, Lachlan Smith and Corey Gault catch up with some children at a football clinic.
