The Alinta Energy Gippsland League will be hosting three core theme rounds in 2023. The League was successful in receiving a grant for the Change Our Game promotion which will deliver the Change Our Game round as part of the celebrating and elevating women in sport program. This round will be added to the two existing theme rounds with Loy Yang B Mental Health Round and Orange Round also on the schedule. The recent approval for the Change Our Game round will see the schedule shift for the other two theme rounds to the following:
Orange Round – Round 10
Feature matchday – Wonthaggi v Maffra
LYB Mental Health Round – Round 12
Feature matchday – Traralgon v Maffra & Warragul v Drouin
Change Our Game Round – Round 16
Feature matchday – Morwell v Sale & Traralgon v Bairnsdale
The Orange Round initiative has been running since 2015 and is a Gippsland wide initiative to encourage sports club to take a stand and help raise awareness about the incidence and impacts of sexual assault, family violence and violence against women and girls in our community. As well as raise awareness about how we can create a community culture that promotes equality and respect. The concept of the Gippsland Orange Round arose from the United Nations International Orange Day; an Initiative which aims to raise awareness about Violence against Women and Girls, inspiring anyone in the world to organise an event/s to work towards reducing violence against women and girls.
The League wide theme round will take place in Round 10 where the League will be providing signage and instructions for the signs to be displayed at the 5 matchdays. The League will also be supplying orange tape for the Senior Football and A Grade players to wear as armbands on the day to symbolize the support for the concept. Wonthaggi will host the feature matchday after their strong support of the concept in 2022 and there will be several additional activations at that matchday.
Loy Yang B Mental Health Round will be on July 8th & 9th for round 12 of the 2023 season. This special theme round is proudly supported by our major partner Loy Yang B and will aim to help raise awareness of mental health issues and the impact it is having on our community and the quest to ‘making better mental health our goal’.
The event will be run over the 5 match days with the Traralgon v Maffra on the Saturday and Warragul v Drouin on the Sunday being the feature matchdays of the round. Both football and netball will be engaged with activities on the day. The main activation in the round will see one mental health champion from each football team across the four grades wear a specially designed jumper featuring a blue 0 on the back to represent the push for zero lives lost to mental health. These jumpers represent the League and member clubs’ united position to support better mental health across our clubs and communities. In each netball match a mental health champion from each team will wear a special blue bib. Each netball match will also feature the use of a special blue netball match ball. All football and netball players and officials will be wearing blue arm bands to support the quest to make better mental health our goal.
Each of the five matchdays across the Gippsland League will participate for a Mental Health Round Cup. The winning club will receive this at the end of the day. The winning club will be based on the total team wins on the day across football and netball. In the result of a tie, the club with the highest average winning margin on the day will be declared the winner. All 10 matches at each venue will have a medal to be awarded to the Alliance Player of the Game. This medal will be decided by the winning sides coaching panel and is awarded to the player they believe demonstrated the most courage, determination and teamwork for the winning side.
The League will be producing a special copy of the Gippsland League Record for the round and the match between Traralgon v Maffra and Warragul v Drouin in the seniors and A Grade will be streamed live via Optus Gippsland League TV.
Summary of mental health round activations:
- Each of the five matchdays will compete for a Mental Health Round Cup
- Each match in Round 12 will have a player awarded the Alliance Medal for the best display of courage, determination and team work for that matches winning side.
- In every football match (Senior – Fourths) in Round 12 a nominated champion will wear a specially designed jumper.
- In every netball match a nominated champion will wear a set of blue bibs
- In every netball match a special blue match ball will be used
- Football and netball players and officials will be asked to wear blue arm bands in the support of better mental health.
- Gippsland League will use the Record to feature an all-blue cover with an image of the champions in the jerseys to be worn on the match day.
- Traralgon v Maffra & Warragul v Drouin Senior & A Grade matches will be live streamed via Optus Gippsland League TV
The Change Our Game League wide theme round will be part of the Alinta Energy Gippsland League’s overall Showcasing Women in sport campaign and will be run throughout five match days. The theme round is placed in the Round 16 split round and the feature match days in both weeks between Morwell v Sale & Traralgon v Bairnsdale will run additional activations. Showcasing Women in Sport – Gippsland League is aimed at promoting female participation and increasing female engagement in all aspects of the Gippsland League including playing, coaching, being a volunteer, club executive or League executive.
The promotion around this theme round and the events within the matchdays will be aimed to engage women with the Change Our Game messaging and to celebrate our female participants. Part of the promotion will be Showcase Match filming for all 5 A Grade matches in Round 16 which will include messaging aimed to inspire and engage women in sport within Gippsland League. From Round 11 the League will produce weekly match filming of at least one A Grade netball match in addition to the Optus Match of the Month to begin to bring the product in line with local male football coverage. This product will be the first weekly video content of female netball in the Gippsland region.