Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien has become Adelaide’s first player to receive the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award for his mental health advocacy work in schools and at the Club.
The award recognises AFL and AFLW players who demonstrate a commitment to the community and helping others, and was presented at the AFL’s Brownlow Medal on Monday night.
It is named in honour of the late Jim Stynes and recognises the player who has best demonstrated the values of the former Melbourne champion ruckman and Club president who died in 2012.
O’Brien has consistently demonstrated a passion and commitment for community work throughout his AFL career at Adelaide, which began as a rookie in 2014 and led to being crowned Club Champion in 2020.
For the past two years, the 29-year-old has taken a lead role as an ambassador for the Open Parachute Mental Health Program and delivered resilience programs throughout South Australian schools.
His honesty in sharing his own personal experiences of dealing with mental health challenges while growing up have had a profound impact on students by helping to break down the stigma of mental health and encouraging open and vulnerable conversations.
O’Brien, who has been part of Adelaide’s AFL leadership group since 2022, has also taken it upon himself to provide training and support for the Club’s 1-3 year players to become comfortable sharing their own stories with school students.
Crows CEO Tim Silvers said O’Brien was a quality person who thoroughly deserved the recognition.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Reilly for the way he represents our Club and conducts himself on and off the field,” Silvers said.
“He epitomises everything about prioritising others and showing genuine care – which is one of our Club’s core values.
“His courage in sharing his own experiences has had a big impact on thousands of school students across the state, as well as some of his teammates, who now feel comfortable and confident to have their own conversations about mental health which is very powerful.”
Crows GM Community and Foundation Casey Grice said O’Brien had helped grow the Club’s Open Parachute program by 200 per cent in the past two years, and reach more than 28,000 students from 40 schools.
“Reilly is the perfect facilitator for this program and advocate because he’s truly passionate about the cause,” Grice said.
“And that has led to him creating a resilience workshop that he delivers in his own time where he goes into disadvantaged schools and tells his lived experience with mental health.
“His ambition is to ensure as many children as possible have access to this program, and the skills and capacity to overcome challenges as they face them in their life.”
Last year O’Brien spent part of his off-season visiting Indigenous communities in the APY Lands as part of the Crows on Country program where he helped deliver STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) lessons to remote schools.
He is also involved with other social welfare initiatives including Bedford Group which is Australia’s second largest employer for people with a disability.
