Over 200 new arrivals have been honing their football skills and knowledge at the kennel in recent weeks, in the lead up to the annual CALDplay Football Carnival held during Refugee Week.
The eight week program is coming towards the pointy end with the CALDplay carnival just a fortnight away and the improvement in skill and confidence at training has been evident.
Participants represent over 30 ethnicities with some having lived in Australia for less than one month before picking up their first oval ball through CALDplay.
The program is run in conjunction with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Victoria Police, SEDA and the Bulldogs across three sites – Footscray/Sunshine, St Albans and Werribee.
The Maribyrnong/Brimbank combination of Footscray AMES, Victoria University Sunshine and Yarraville Community Centre is shaping up as the team to beat in both the women’s and the men’s divisions.
The team will be seeking revenge against the AMES St Albans / Werribee combo who took out the male and female double at last year’s carnival.
The CALDplay Football Carnival was first held in Refugee Week in June 2008 and has subsequently become an annual event for the Western Bulldogs, Maribyrnong City Council and western region based English learning centres – AMES, Victoria University and Yarraville Community Centre.
This year’s carnival will be held on Thursday 19 June 2014 at Victoria University Whitten Oval with the women’s match commencing 10:45am and men’s match 11:30am.
As well as the main attraction of the CALDplay matches, there will be displays from the Bulldogs’ Sons of the West men’s health program, the MFB and Cohealth.
