A combined St Albans, Wyndham and Werribee side has taken the honours in both the women’s and men’s divisions of the sixth annual CALDplay Football Carnival (culturally and linguistically diverse) at Whitten Oval yesterday, despite fierce competition from a joint Footscray, Sunshine and Yarraville opposition.
The event, which was hosted by the Western Bulldogs’ SpiritWest Services, culminated in an awards ceremony, with Bulldogs’ midfielder Clay Smith on hand to present each participant with a medal, as well as the winning teams’ trophies.
Over 200 migrants and refugees across the western region came together at the Bulldogs home ground on the day to test their AFL skills in both men’s and women’s competitive matches, concluding their six week introductory football program.
Participants from Werribee AMES (Adult Multicultural Education Services), St Albans AMES and the Refugee VCAL class of Wyndham Community & Education Centre were rewarded with the win in both women’s and men’s matches against a gallant opposition made up of Footscray AMES, Victoria University Sunshine and the Yarraville Community.
The women’s side went on to keep their opposition goalless with a final score of 2.5(17) to 0.2(2), despite the ball being hotly contested throughout the match.
With the average age of the Footscray / Yarraville team well over 35, and with the highest number of female participants in the carnival since the women’s trophy was introduced three years ago, the result was irrelevant as the game was just as much about celebrating CALD women’s participation in football as it was about the competition.
In the men’s match, the clear skies allowed for a free flowing end to end game with one of the higher scoring matches in the carnival’s history.
Similar to their female counterparts, the younger legs of the Werribee/St Albans side proved the key to staving off a late final quarter dip from Sunshine/Yarraville/Footscray who kicked the last 2 goals of the match.
In the end the difference was 11 points with Werribee/St Albans 5.9(39) defeating Sunshine/Yarraville/Footscray 4.4 (28)
The event celebrates the achievements of the english-learning students – aged from 18 to 65, hailing from 25 different countries from across the world – in learning not just the game of Australian Football but about our emergency services by familiarising participants with the Victoria Police and MFB personnel (Metropolitan Fire Brigade).
The aim of the Carnival is to bring all players together through football and to provide an opportunity for the players to showcase the skills they have learnt, in an encouraging and fun environment.
By using Refugee Week as the platform to host the event, the CALDplay Carnival aims to engage the broader western region community to view and recognise the skills and achievements of the newly arrived participants, many of whom are from refugee backgrounds.
The CALDplay Football Carnival began as an Inter-AMES carnival between Footscray and Werribee AMES and was first held in Refugee Week, June 2008.
It has subsequently expanded to other AMES centres (St Albans), AMEP (VU) and Community Centres (WCEC & Yarraville) with separate male and female games (the female match was introduced in 2011). Over 6 years, the program has grown from 40 participants to 130 participants in 2013.
