Our partnership with Melbourne Football Club
Zurich Australia has been proud Co-Principal Partner of Melbourne Football Club’s AFL team since 2018 and we extended our partnership to include the Dee’s AFLW team in 2020.
This makes us partners with one of the AFL’s original clubs, with a long history dating back to 1858. They lay claim to being the oldest professional sporting club in the world, across all sports. The AFL is the most popular sporting code in Australia, considering participation, game attendance, TV viewing figures and media coverage.
As one of the largest specialist insurers in Australia, Zurich is always looking for new ways to connect with our customers, partners, and the community. This partnership is the perfect way to make those connections and to bring our focus on physical and mental wellbeing to life, while strengthening our brand across Australia.
You'll notice our Zurich logo proudly featured on the front of the men’s playing and training gear, and on the back of the women’s. As Co-Principal Partner, we also actively participate in important community programs like the annual Big Freeze campaign led by Fight MND, Round for Reach, and the BCNA Pink Lady match.
Melbourne Football Club in the community, proudly supported by Zurich
BCNA Pink Lady Round
Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) is a non-profit organisation that provides support to Australians affected by breast cancer. BCNA's goal is to ensure that Australians affected by breast cancer receive the support, information, treatment, and care that meet their needs.
Every year, Melbourne hosts the ‘Pink Lady’ round at the MCG. During this event, players wear pink jumpers or socks to raise awareness and funds for BCNA. Once every four years, the event culminates in the iconic ‘Field of Women’ event at the MCG, where over 18,000 people take to the field before the match to show unity.
In 2024, Zurich provided our logo space on the men’s run out t-shirt to BCNA. In its place, we featured the names of people who have been impacted by breast cancer. 43 individuals were selected from more than 350 public nominations, to have their names displayed on the t-shirts in support of ‘PLAY4BCNA’ during AFL Round 15 ‘Pink Lady Match’.
Fight MND’s Big Freeze at the ‘G'
Every year, the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club hold the annual ‘Big Freeze at the G’. This event on the King’s Birthday has become one of the biggest in the AFL calendar and is the main fundraising event for the FightMND Foundation.
Thanks to the determined effort of Essendon legend and former Melbourne Coach Neale Daniher (who is living with MND), the event has raised millions to help find a cure for this cruel disease.
Over the past seven years, Zurich has been a significant supporter of the Big Freeze at the ‘G campaign, donating a total of $145,000 to the cause. Zurich is the proud sponsor of MFC’s annual Zurich ‘Walk to the G’ event, handing out thousands of red and blue flags to Dee's supporters at the pre-game event each season.
Round for Reach
For the past six seasons, Zurich has joined forces with the Melbourne Football Club and Reach to bring to life an annual ‘Round for Reach’ match, focusing on issues close to the heart of young Australians.
For 30 years, Reach has developed in young people the skills they need to bounce back from life’s unexpected challenges.
Through delivering profound personal development workshops in schools, clubs and communities (both in-person and online), Reach inspires hope, resilience and connection in the next generation.
Zurich has contributed over $175,000 to Reach since 2019 and we’re proud to be a major contributor to Round for Reach each season alongside Melbourne Football Club.
Grassroots to Greatness
Since 2021, Zurich has run an annual community initiative, to give back to grassroots footy clubs across the country.
Across three AFLW seasons, Zurich teamed up with community mental health program Tackle Your Feelings (TYF), donating football equipment to clubs for every goal scored by the Dees AFLW team. The initiative saw 233 packs donated to junior AFL clubs across the three seasons.
In 2024, Zurich launched Grassroots for Greatness, which sees a $1,000 community grant allocated to a local football club for each AFLW game played during the season. This has seen 11 community footy clubs supported during the 2024 season.
Indigenous Programs and Reconciliation Action Plan
The Melbourne Football Club is proudly committed to fully supporting reconciliation, now and into the future. Through their Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), the Club aims to create a welcoming, inclusive and nurturing environment that is socially, culturally and spiritually safe and accessible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Melbourne has a proud history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players and involvement in local communities. This is especially evident in the Northern Territory where their partnership with the Northern Territory Government and the AFL provides an opportunity to play AFL games in the Territory. During each of these trips, the Club commits to community visits to remote communities, schools, youth detention centres and hospitals.
For 15 years, the Club has partnered with the University of Melbourne’s Indigenous Eye Health Unit, promoting messages to reduce Trachoma in remote communities. In that time, Trachoma rates in children have reduced from 21% to under 4%.
In 2017, as part of the Club’s RAP, the Dees committed to grassing the Santa Teresa Oval. The project demonstrates the Club’s commitment to improving the lifestyle of Indigenous people and was completed in 2020.
