Making better mental health our goal continues all year round, but this was especially evident during the Gippsland League’s annual mental health awareness themed round on Saturday 12 April, round two of 2025 season.

The round aims to help raise awareness of mental health issues and the impact it has on our community, while promoting the quest of ‘making better mental health our goal.’ It is delivered annually as part of our ongoing partnership with the league to help football and netball clubs in Gippsland’s 10 biggest towns deliver sessions to support education on social initiatives.

All teams competing on the day nominated a mental health champion. Footballers who embraced this role wore a jumper featuring a blue ‘zero’ on the back to represent the push for zero lives lost to mental health, and all netballers wore blue bibs and played the games with a special blue ball. This represented the league and member clubs’ united position to support better mental health across our clubs and communities. Medals were also awarded for the player on the winning team who demonstrated the most courage, determination and teamwork for the winning side.

Loy Yang B General Manager Tony Hicks said the commitment from member clubs to embrace the initiative had seen it grow year-on-year.

“This is the fifth year we have supported mental health round, and engagement by the clubs keeps getting stronger, with many clubs integrating it with their existing mental health awareness activities,” Tony said.

“We love that all Gippsland League clubs have embraced the initiative so positively and are united in the purpose of making better mental health our collective goal – not just during the specialty round, but every day.”

Gippsland League General Manager Daniel Heathcote said the league was “proud” to continue to deliver the annual event.

“We thank the member clubs of the Gippsland League for continuing to be key drivers of the message throughout many years and for their continuing support championing making better mental health a goal throughout the season,” Daniel said.

“While the league- wide theme round delivers key messaging, the major impact comes through the member clubs becoming leaders in this space as they go above and beyond to deliver mental health programming throughout the year, making a difference in our communities.”

The next specialty round we will support through our partnership is 'orange round', which aims to tackle family violence and promote gender equality and fairness in sport. This is scheduled for round 11 on 28 June 2025.