Bathurst Bushrangers stage Mental Health round to raise money for Black Dog Institute – Western Advocate

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WIN the contested footy, dominate centre clearances, take those specky marks – the Bathurst Bushrangers will be aiming to do all those things on Saturday but even more importantly, the club wants to start a conversation.
One about mental health.
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This Saturday at George Park as the Bushrangers host local rivals Bathurst Giants in the latest round of AFL Central West action, it will double as the Mental Health Round.

“I think across our whole club, everyone at the club has been affected in some way by mental health,” Bathurst Lady Bushrangers captain Ciara Kearns said.

“Everyone here is so passionate about it, it’s a big drive for us, we’ve all seen people impacted by it. People didn’t talk about mental health in the past, which was crazy, so it’s good people are talking about it more now.

“It is a big goal of ours to be able to support people around us, our community, it’s about trying to get around them. So this is a main focus for a lot of us this year.”
The Bushrangers will be raising money for the Black Dog Institute across the day.
Black Dog is currently celebrating 20 years of research into mental health – it has shown that around five million Australians each year are impacted by mental illness.
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The men’s tier one and women’s Bushrangers sides will be wearing special jerseys displaying the Black Dog Institute logo.
“We’ve got the teal, being our colour, and we’ve also got the black for the Black Dog Institute,” Kearns said.
“Each of the players who wear them have the option of buying them, and those who don’t buy them, the jerseys will go to auction at our trivia night.
“We’ve got a lot of fundraising themes and we’ll be taking donations on the day, we’ll be trying to raise as much as we can.”
The on-field action begins at 11am when the Bushrangers Rebels and Bushrangers Outlaws square off in the men’s tier two derby.
That is followed by the women’s clash between the Lady Bushrangers and Giants at 12.30pm, and the men’s tier one game between Bushrangers and Giants at 2.15pm.
Just at there will be plenty of talking points form those games, the Bushrangers are aiming to encourage people to talk about mental health too.
“To have this, to have the Giants and then a club derby as well, like how good is that? It’s the perfect day for us to be doing it,” Kearns said.

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“Each year we try to do something, but obviously the last couple of years COVID has got in the way of trying to do something as a club.
“So this year it was a big focus to try and help Black Dog and next year we’ll look at doing a pride round as well, just to support the people around us and people in our community, to let them know we’re here, and also for anyone else, they can come and talk to us as well.”

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