By Callum 'Articles' Ludwig
The Lilydale Over 50s side pulled on the boots for one last time this season in a charity effort for The Black Dog Institute.
The veteran side was able to don the blue and gold for the first time in 2022 and took on their teammates-come-adversaries in Plenty Valley, with who they merged in order to play this season.
Event organiser and Lilydale ruckman Michael O’Dwyer said they were very excited to have the game taking place.
“It’s a wonderful thing for us to be able to put the blue and gold on and it’s a great opportunity for us to raise some funds for a really important cause in the Black Dog Institute,” he said.
“They do some incredible work with research, education and support services. We know, the stats are really strong on this, that one in five people at the moment is experiencing a mental health challenge and this is an incredible way to normalize the experience of mental health and mental health support and then strike a really positive blow.”
A number of key stats have been highlighted by the Lilydale Football Netball Club from the Black Dog Institute: Nearly 9 people a day die by suicide (that’s double the road toll) with 75 per cent of them being men. Suicide is the number one cause of death for people aged 15-44 and two in five Australians ages between 16-85 have experienced a mental health disorder at some stage in their life.
Mr O’Dwyer said the Lilydale Over 50s are a tight bunch of blokes and the camaraderie that we feel as a team coming together is about having support networks for each other.
“Support networks are really important in a time of crisis, and this team is really symbolic of our own support networks,” he said.
“We all need to extend that to people who don’t have that support, it’s so important. Women are far better at it than men, and men need somewhere that isn’t work and not necessarily family where they can come to express and empathize and support each other. That’s why community sport is great.”
The Lilydale Over 50s were able to bring home a win too, triumphing 52 to 46 in good conditions for nighttime footy.
