Bristol Paints Volunteer of the Month: Tim Cromb

Nominations for the Bristol Paint Volunteer of the Year award are still open. To nominate a volunteer to be featured as our Volunteer of the Month from your affiliate click here.

This month’s Bristol Volunteer of the month is a man of many talents… a coach, life member, president, former VP, player, referee… you name it Tim Cromb has likely done it in his Touch Football career.

A generous supporter of the game who constantly puts others above himself, Tim is someone who resonates with many of us and works vigorously to grow Touch Football in regional Victoria. With a big heart and bigger passion for the game, Tim uses his mind and connections to ensure players in the country have a connection with, and similar opportunities to city participants.

Tim has been on the Ballarat committee for over 20 years in a variety of roles… he’s been president multiple times and now in his 19th year (cumulatively) in the role. Tim has been integral to growing the game in Ballarat and pioneering the Western Affiliates Cup with life-long friend Gary Wingrove.

As our Bristol Volunteer of the Month, we speak to Tim about his impact on Touch Football in country Victoria and the incredible role he has performed in Ballarat and surrounds.

Congratulations Tim, can you begin by telling us a little bit about your Touch Football journey?

Thanks so much, really appreciate the nomination and being recognised as this month’s recipient.

My journey, well I started playing back in 1993 when I was about 15 years’ old and got hooked on my first game as I was able to score a couple tries, I thought “how good is this” and from this day on I’ve never questioned the game or my passion and drive to play and/or grow the game.

I’ve always been surrounded by great people in the Ballarat Touch Football community, Gary Wingrove, Wayne Drever, Gerard Crameri, Mark McGrath, Bob Coleman and Kate and Michael Robinson to name a few. All I call good friends of mine and we’re all life members of Ballarat Touch! I started playing in Ballarat and quickly found my way into our Representative team and played my first tournament in Portland (Victoria). I played for 2 seasons in Ballarat before then moving to Queensland to get a job for a couple years – somehow couldn’t get into playing whilst up there, but upon my return to Ballarat I jumped straight back into the 1998/99 season.

In 2000 I joined the committee as Secretary for Ballarat Touch Association, Peter Joyce was the president. It was great for me to learn from Peter, and I’ve been a part of the committee ever since.

The Association was in a state of disarray so a few of us banded together, during a crisis meeting, to ensure we could get the Association back on track! We moved venues in the same year, 2000, to Russell Square Community Sports Centre and had 8 teams.

The club has seen great growth in the past 20 years, what would you put that down too?

I put that down to the great work of our committee here in Ballarat, we started with 5 committee members in 2000 and now we have about 15. But from the start having never been on a committee before I was keen to learn, but also share my ideas with the committee on how we could improve the association. I was heavily involved in AFL at the time, and I was keen to show our committee that we could run functions to help cover our cost that we incurred when move to Russell Square. We now run 2 functions a year and an end of year Presentation Night.

I have always been of the mentality you can change a couple things at a time, but no more than that. Slow and steadily that’s what we did at Ballarat Touch, never biting off more than we could chew. We have been able to go from 8 mixed teams, increased to 21 mixed teams and 8 single gender teams before covid hit and impacted registrations.

I try to get to know all players in every team and try to be approachable so as to give everyone a good experience in our great game.

What was it about Touch Footy that was so inviting and caught your attention?

I’ve always loved the game of rugby league, wanting to have some fun, but also keep fit and I know and understand the cross-over between touch and league. I was constantly curious; how could someone go through the line without being touched… even after playing the game I still wasn’t so sure! I’m still around Touch Football because of the community and love we all share for the game, I want to be able to pass on my knowledge of the game to the juniors coming through, so there’s a constant legacy of learning.

You're currently the president, a coach & life member… what is so appealing about being on the committee?

The ability to help, be helped and evoke change for the better, that’s what keeps me going and why I love it. We are always able to band together and help each other out as need be, we are a very tight knit committee I’ve been very lucky to have long time committee members in Kate Robinson, Mark McGrath, Wayne Drever and my wife (Karina) to name a few. There was a time pre-covid where I thought it may be time to pass the baton on, but with the pandemic came many challenges that I stuck around for & we’ve come out the other side now!

How is the Western Affiliates Cup going? You pioneered this competition; what was the initial thinking or need behind it?

It’s going great, thanks! What started off as a plan to get regional touch players to participate at a tournament more often has now grown into so much more!

It all began about 13 years ago at a motel with my dear friend Gary Wingrove – we saw a gap whereby country kids would struggle to be seen, identified and play at tournaments. So, we started the Western Affiliates Cup, whereby you had to be affiliated to Touch Football Victoria to enter and needed to be a registered player as well. We also moved the tournament around each year throughout western Victoria (Portland, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, etc.) – so each club could learn how to run a tournament and perhaps take the reins on one themselves.

It started as an event that was run three times a year, at a different location each time; with the growth we’ve experienced we’ve narrowed it down to an annual event… but in return there’s now 5-6 other tournaments existing for country players both junior and senior to play at and potentially recognised to play at a representative level. This was precisely what we had set out to do.

You had a huge impact on re-affiliating Bendigo, could you tell us a bit about how that occurred?

This question links well with the Western Affiliates Cup, Bendigo was keen to play in the event and get their players playing at a tournament more regularly, but unfortunately, they weren’t affiliated with Touch Football Victoria. After some discussions with the Bendigo committee and hierarchy seeing the benefits of being affiliated with Touch Football Australia, they joined!

We were able to show people that if you’re pro-active, have a love for the game and are keen for it to grow there’s plenty you can do yourselves and being affiliated helps connect you to the Touch Football community.

What is your favourite Touch Footy memory?

This is a tricky one, but in essence it’s seeing my daughter score against Queensland at the School Sport Australia nationals playing U15s. I was the coach and the year before this try, Decodea didn’t make the squad, but with time the following year she was picked and we had a bet (knowing how strong the New South Wales and Queensland teams are) whereby I didn’t think she’d score against these teams well Decodea scored. She was thrilled with herself and looked over at me rubbing her fingers together indicated I owed her some cash… it was an awesome and proud moment.

That’s a cracking story! So, what is next for Tim Cromb?

Well earlier this year I retired from playing AFL at 44 so more touch. I’ll remain on the committee but may not be too far away from stepping down as President.

Mainly for me, I want to keep coaching and giving country players junior and senior a voice – ensuring they’re always heard, have a chance to play and showcase their talent!

I was a single dad for the first 10 years whilst on the committee when raising my daughter Decodea; I now have another two kids coming through, Eliza and Riley and am looking forward to playing and coaching them too!

Finally, if you were to win the Bristol Paint Volunteer of the Year award and $15,000 worth of prizes towards a home or club renovation – what project comes to mind?

We have a great venue at Russell Square, with new lights and a great PA system, but there’s always more to do or upgrade. I’d love to work with council on a few new ideas to continue to increase the standard of the venue.

As our Bristol Volunteer of the Month, Tim is now eligible for the Bristol Paint TFA Volunteer of the Year (VOY) Award. The TFA VOY will receive paint and labour to the value of $15,000 for the refurbishment project of their choice, thanks to our friends at Bristol Paint.

DON’T FORGET – All Touch Footy participants are entitled to 15-20% OFF Bristol Paint products.  Download your exclusive discount card on our website, click here, scroll to the bottom and download your card.