Perth Football League clubs raised more than $250,000 towards local and national charitable causes in 2024.
Perth Football League clubs raised more than $250,000 towards local and national charitable causes in 2024.
Aside from embracing themed rounds – including NAIDOC – and dedicated fundraising events based around breast cancer and mental health awareness, PFL chief executive Andrew Dawe told Business News he was proud of the
“I think it just highlights again how much of an integral part our clubs play in the community,” he said.
“They’re not just having a kick of the football – they understand that they can obviously have an impact in social outcomes as well.
“And some clubs, as you can see from our report, do it really well don’t they? And some have been doing it for quite a long time.
“Like Curtin University Wesley. They’ve been doing their Pink Day for quite some time and you can see in their results, they’re kind of generating over $50,000 back to those charitable organisations, which is just amazing.”
Both the Big Freeze for MND and Beyond Blue causes were also taken up by PFL clubs in order to raise awareness and funds for motor neurone disease and mental health respectively, while the Ballajura Senior Football Club’s “Jim’s Day” to raise money for Cancer Council WA was also popular.
Mr Dawe said while the 2025 season calendar was still yet to be finalised, the PFL would be looking at adding a new themed round next year.
“I think the main one to get on our clubs’ radar will be the gambling harm reduction themed-round, which we will look to schedule early in the year and put a spotlight on that,” he said.
“Which will be a national thing across the Victorian Amateur Football Association, Adelaide Football League and us.
“We’ll look to coordinate our watches I guess to make sure the round is the same across the country and really put a big focus on it for a week.”
Mr Dawe represented the PFL in Canberra last month, where representatives from all three competitions spent time with the Department of Social Services’ gambling unit, in a bid to further plans for a Gambling Harm Reduction Program.
It is hoped the program will provide greater support to young people in our community who potentially could be impacted or potentially susceptible to gambling-based harm.
“The conversations in Canberra were really good actually,” Mr Dawe said.
“Effectively, we were presenting to the federal grant suppliers and giving them an update as to where we’re at and looking to do.
“What I got out of it was that all of the states – Victoria, us and Adelaide – are very much on the same page and working in unison, really well, together.”
With the festive season less than eight weeks away, the PFL is showing no signs of slowing down as it aims to finish 2024 off strong.
“We had a board meeting last night which kicked off a few chunky items that we’re looking to deliver for next year,” Mr Dawe told Business News.
“And that’s all based off feedback that we’ve received throughout the year – whether it be through our workshops, through surveys or anecdotal feedback.
“We’ll then present back to all of the club presidents on November 20, which is our president’s forum.
“We basically give them an overview of what we’ve heard, what the data is which is backing it up, what we are proposing to do about it and then also providing them the road map of what the rolling out looks like.
“After that, I’ve got another board meeting in December. It won’t be a heavy agenda, but again, an opportunity to tick off a few items.”
