North Gippsland Football-Netball League will play its annual Pride Cup game tomorrow.
Sale City and Heyfield are the clubs chosen to take part in this year’s event, and will each don special football jumpers and netball dresses for the occasion.
The NGFNL launched pride round last Friday at TRFM in Traralgon. The Bulldogs and Kangaroos will compete, reinforcing the saying to ‘play for pride’ at Stephenson Park.
“We all own the games of football and netball; it’s not an exclusive club,” NGFNL president David Kyle said.
The AGL Pride Cup, established in 2016, has now become an annual event on the NGNFL calendar.
“Whilst the AGL Pride Cup journey started eight years ago, it’s empowering to witness the recent years that all major sporting organisations such as the AFL, Cricket Australia, Tennis Australia, swimming, soccer and many other sporting codes have implemented policy around inclusion and diversity,” Kyle added.
Kyle said that perhaps the league was ahead of the game in starting the pride event.
AGL Loy Yang general manager, Christo van Niekerk said he was honoured to attend the event.
“We’ve been involved with this for the last eight years; it’s really reflective of the culture that we would want in our business as we also celebrate diversity and inclusion in an organisation that’s close to our hearts,” he said.
The Pride Cup will be awarded to the club that wins the most games on the day.
Nick Dinsdale from the Heyfield Football-Netball Club said: “It’s great to be involved in this initiative, the Pride Cup … everyone has a right to feel comfortable. Hopefully, promoting initiatives like this will make people more comfortable joining their local football and netball clubs.”
Though there was no particular reason this round or date was chosen, Saturday, May 27, was chosen for Sale City as the host club.
“It’s really important for Sale City to be inclusive and to be supportive of players, coaches and volunteers, and it’s especially being done with Heyfield; we’re a real close community, we obviously know, work and play with all their players so it’s really special,” Sale City’s Ella Baker-Horan said.
According to Australian research, LGBTQIA+ people have some of the lowest rates of participation in sports, with 80 per cent of people that have either witnessed or experienced homophobia.
“Out of every 1000 people, 150 don’t feel comfortable, and that’s a statistic that we want to change,” Kyle said.
Not much separates Heyfield and Sale City, not distance nor competitiveness. Both clubs are so equally matched that the 2023 Pride Cup could be anyone’s, but tomorrow, it’ll be more than just winning and losing; it’ll be about coming together to raise awareness and support for all of the community.
