SockIt2MND Round

Brett Connell – VAFA CEO

It seems like only yesterday that Neale Daniher was at the VAFA AGM sharing with the audience all the work he and many others are doing to fight and find a cure for MND.

You only have to look back to the Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday on Monday, where 80,000+ people attended the MCG to celebrate the FightMND campaign, to realise what a powerful vehicle AFL is and now this week we get to do our bit at community level.

FightMND is Australia’s leading independent MND organisation. They are fighting to find effective treatments and a cure for Motor Neurone Disease, or as founder Neale Daniher calls it ‘The Beast’. MND is a ‘Beast’ that claims the lives of two Australian’s every day.

It takes people to fight MND, and through initiatives such as the Big Freeze and now Sockit2MND, our support will allow FightMND to continue the funding of critical research of the debilitating disease. Our support for FightMND goes towards research including clinical trials, which allows researchers to develop ways to slow or prevent the progression of MND and ultimately find a cure.

This weekend many VAFA clubs will support the Sockit2MND Community Round – where all AFL Victoria Community Leagues will band together to support MND research.

In 2017, Neale’s Daniher’s sisters, Julie and Dorothy, and his brother Chris, launched Sockit2MND in the Riverina region. Three football leagues – Hume, Farrar and Riverina – came on board for one weekend with their football and netball clubs. Each club wore the Big Freeze socks with pride on the allocated weekend. They held additional fundraisers on the day, and the campaign was a great success and raised more than $20,000 for MND research.

With the success of the Riverina campaign, Sockit2MND has expanded into Victoria and NSW to raise further funds and awareness in 2018. All with your help.

For example, the Old Trinity and De La Salle OC clubs have annually held their MND match and will do so again this weekend, as well as other VAFA clubs who have joined the cause – congratulations and thank you for your support.

The new state-wide campaign, called Sockit2MND, has been partnered and supported by AFL Victoria. AFL and netball associations across Victoria and NSW will get involved to FightMND by buying a pair of Big Freeze 4 socks. Players and club supporters will wear them during the dedicated MND round – June 16 and 17 – this weekend.

The Sockit2MND socks will be the players’ alternative to the Big Freeze beanie. It will bring sporting communities together for a round of fun, fundraising and a sea of blue. Sockit2MND support all those in our football and netball communities who have been affected by Motor Neurone Disease.

As a leading community football competition, we understand that we have a vital role to play in supporting a range of issues that are important to the people around us. We look forward to working with FightMND annually on raising funds for this fantastic cause.

Whether or not your club is actively participating in Sockit2MND round, it would be great to have plenty of coverage for this initiative by all of our clubs in some way. To support FightMND today, head to www.fightmnd.org.au.

Thank your again for your support, and see you at the footy with your Big Freeze beanie and/or MND socks on!