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St Kilda Launch Danny Frawley Mental Health Initiative

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St Kilda Football Club are launching an initiative designed to tackle mental health issues in the local community in memory of the late Danny ‘Spud’ Frawley.

‘Spud’s Game: Time 2 Talk’ will be a tribute match set up to honour the former St Kilda player, who was found to have CTE in his coroner’s report.

Frawley was an advocate for mental health and played a significant role in starting broader conservation on the topic.

The match will take place in Round 2 of the 2021 AFL season, and comes amid a recent Victorian Royal Commission into mental health.

The commission revealed that 7.3 million Australians aged between 16 to 85 years will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, with 4.2 million people experiencing an anxiety condition.

St Kilda will also partner with Movember for the initiative, and team up in community-oriented mental health programs.

Movember mental health and suicide prevention program lead, Owen Brigstock-Barron, said it’s an honour for the charity to be involved in “such a special match”.

“We take hope in knowing that Spud’s legacy – putting your hand up and speaking up – will continue to spark conversations and play a pivotal role in normalising Australians talking about mental health more openly,” Brigstock-Barron said.

“Funds raised during Spud’s Game will help to ensure that Ahead of the Game, an evidence-based mental fitness and resilience program, can reach even more junior footballers, their coaches and parents, helping them to deal with mental health challenges both on and off the field,” he said.

Funds will be raised via movember.com/spud, with special edition caps and tees also available for fans to purchase.

The funds raised will be used to support mental health programs through the Danny Frawley Centre for Health and Wellbeing, as well as Movember’s Ahead of the Game project.

If you or anyone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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