Perth Football League making footy a place where all can celebrate in all-abilities integrated competition

“If you want to play, we’ll find a way.” That’s the mantra that drives Perth Football League’s all-abilities integrated competition. Now entering its 15th season, the competition has 14 teams and more than 450 players — men and women aged 16 and over with physical or intellectual disabilities. Credited with boosting players’ social, mental and physical health, the competition is the same game, on the same field, and with the same number of players as any other football match played around Australia. “Perth Football League were leaders in the genesis of the integrated competition in 2009 when they saw a need for community to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in footy, just like every other Australian is able to do so,” All-Abilities Football WA executive officer Hayden Marchetto says. “And with that genesis came the evolution of a competition. “It’s amazing, the friendships, the everlasting relationships that the players make. There is a sense of value, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of wellbeing.” Marchetto says there is nowhere better than a community football club, and people don’t have to play to be involved. “Footy is for everyone,” he says. One of WA’s oldest clubs, UWA Football Club, is launching its all-abilities team this season, coinciding with the completion of new $9 million clubrooms at UWA Sports Park in Mt Claremont. These allow it to cater for those with different access needs for the first time. Ben Rock was the catalyst for UWA’s inclusion. His father John Rock is a life member of the club. Ben, 21, is a die-hard Fremantle supporter, who began playing footy as a six-year-old. This year marks his fifth season in the integrated league, but it’s the first time he’ll be able to pull on UWA’s blue-and-green jumper for the season, just like his father did for 183 games. “There’s a lot of guys that I played with that remember Ben coming down wrapped up in a blue-and-green rug as a toddler,” John says. “His godfather played there, all his dad’s mates played there. A lot of his friends are playing there, and being able to get there to play himself is going to be very good for him as an individual, socially and for his personal development. “The first home games should be very large.” He said Ben had naturally taken on a leadership role within the team to help out players less familiar with the game than himself. “As a dad of a boy that’s had his challenges, I’ve just been really impressed with his ability to step up,” John says. “Helping to get players down, to make sure they feel comfortable, being involved and seeing what needs to be done, and providing his feedback as a player to the club to ensure that they’ve got the best chance of making it successful. “I sat him down the other day and told him I’ve just been so impressed with what he’s done.” Currently going through the rigours of preseason training, the UWA team is preparing for its debut game on April 26 and is on the lookout for new faces, with no football experience necessary. Coach Patrick Wilson says many of his players are new to the sport, with everyone who has attended training returning for another session, and some gaining a new-found love of the game. One participant new to playing footy left training with a ball to keep practising with at home. “He’s now got a Dockers membership. He’s gone out and bought some footy boots.” Wilson says. All-abilities football is also getting recognition on a national level, with inspirational Australian of the year Neale Daniher in Perth this weekend for the Hand in Hand Crossing for Inclusion ahead of Fremantle’s round four clash with the Western Bulldogs. Daniher — a former AFL player and coach who has become the leading advocate for motor neurone disease research since being diagnosed with the condition — will lead a walk across Matagarup Bridge on Sunday. He will be joined by more than 2000 all-abilities players and supporters, before joining junior footballers involved at Optus Stadium in the all-abilities Starkick program at half-time. “The bridge symbolises the coming together of community. We come from one side and cross to the other side and arrive together, recognising inclusion in footy,” Marchetto says. UWA all-abilities team manager Tilly Morfesse says some of the club’s players will take part in the walk before watching the Dockers, looking for inspiration ahead of their first fixture. “We have seen the benefits that it’s had to other clubs having integrated teams, and we want to create that at Uni and continue to be representative of the community,” she says. “The friendships that they’re forming already, like Sam and Lucas, who have come together from (surf lifesaving for disabled youth) Sea Lions at North Cott, and straight away, as soon as they get here, they’re chatting. “I haven’t heard him (Sam) talk that much, and here he knows every single person. “The social aspect is just as important as the physical.” John Rock says the inclusion of all-abilities teams at existing clubs has benefits for every member, sometimes in surprising ways. “(The clubs) understand really quickly that these teams teach the club a lot more about football than they expect,” he says.