A Darwin hockey club is reaping the benefits of offering a free crèche, ensuring mums aren’t left on the sidelines of the sport they love just because they have kids.

St Mary’s Hockey Club president Jamie-Lee Tinning said in early in 2023, the club realised a large number of their players were going to struggle to attend trainings or commit to the season due to having young children.

The problem particularly affected their premier league players.

But two years on, the crèche is one of the biggest selling points, supporting women to continue playing their sport.

“The committee agreed that we didn’t want to see these talented players leave the sport for something that we considered could be easily remedied, so we contacted Hockey NT about the possibility of using one of their air conditioned rooms for the purposes of setting up a crèche on our training night, and they were extremely supportive,” she said.

Jamie said upwards of 10 women would use the service each week, and is now a non-negotiable offered by the club.

“What started as a program to ensure the viability of our premier league women’s team, turned into a lifeline for many women at the club from all grades who due to parenting responsibilities found themselves in need of the crèche to allow them to train,” she said.

“Its success is a talking point among our members and has been met with positivity and appreciation.

“Unfortunately, sometimes mums can be forgotten, and being a mother of two children myself, I firmly believe that having kids shouldn’t mean we can’t still have something for ourselves, even if that is just an hour of training once a week.

“It’s important that we retain a bit of who we were pre-kids so that we can be the best version of ourselves for our children, and the crèche makes this possible for many of us.”