Over the weekend and in the week leading up to the game, the AFL conducted a broad range of activities to help celebrate the themed round. The inaugural ‘Bachar Houli Cup’, a lightning premiership style carnival involving five Islamic schools, was a great success and was lots of fun for those involved. Various school programs, clinics and carnivals were also held throughout the week. Cultural Diversity Forums held around the country gave thousands of industry people an insight into the importance of the community engagement initiatives in this space. The AFL also named a ‘Team of Champions’, featuring 50 of the game’s best imports from 1896 up to the current day. The Carlton Football Club was very proud to have one of their own, Alex Jesaulenko (Ukrainian), represent the team as captain.
Each game featured umpires waving orange flags to signify harmony and players from multicultural backgrounds tossed the coin. In Carlton’s Friday night game against Hawthorn, Andrew Carrazzo tossed the coin and Public Opinion Afro Orchestra performed on the MCG ‘Live at the Footy’ stage. Two of the schools involved in Carlton Football Club’s Multicultural Schools Program, Australian International Academy and Our Lady’s Help of Christians, competed in the Half Time Auskick Games. One of the students from this program was also lucky enough to be chosen as the team’s junior mascot, and was given the opportunity to run out onto MCG with the team.
The Carlton Football Club also looked to celebrate the round in its own unique way. In the lead up to the game, the club ran numerous stories documenting our clubs culturally diverse history. One of the main pieces created by Tony De Bolfo featured a Carlton specific multicultural team, ‘The International XVIII’. This team included club greats such as Mil Hanna, Michael Sexton and of course Alex Jesaulenko.
A story was also run by the Herald Sun on one of the clubs main community initiatives, the ‘Nick Duigan High Rise Football Program’, which looks to provide refugee communities the opportunity to be part of our exciting game. Greg Swan also named Australian International Academy as the winner of the club’s inaugural Community Commitment Award. The school was extremely grateful to be recognised for its outstanding commitment to improving their local Islamic community through sport.
The ranges of activities launched during the AFL’s 2012 Multicultural Round were very successful in acknowledging and celebrating our game’s cultural diversity. Through focusing on how AFL can be for every Australian from any walk of life, the entire league was able to build on the themed round and celebrate the diversity that already exists in the AFL.
