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 sees us partner with one of the AFL’s foundation clubs, with a proud heritage stretching back to 1858. Indeed, they lay claim to being the oldest professional sporting club – of any code – in the world. AFL is Australia’s most popular sporting code, taking into account participation, game attendance, TV viewing figures and media coverage.
As one of the largest specialist insurers in Australia, Zurich is constantly seeking new ways to connect with our customers, partners, and the community at large. The partnership provides the ideal vehicle to make those connections, and to bring to life our focus on physical and mental wellbeing, while building our brand strength around Australia.
Our Zurich logo features proudly 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 play an active role in some important community programs, including the annual Big Freeze campaign lead by Fight MND, Round for Reach and the BCNA Pink Lady match.
Melbourne Football Club in the community, proudly supported by Zurich
Goals for Good
During the 2021 AFLW season, we launched the ‘Goals for Good’ initiative in partnership with Melbourne Football Club (MFC) and our flagship community mental health program Tackle Your Feelings (TYF).
For every goal kicked by a Melbourne player during the AFLW season, a Zurich x TYF football pack was donated to nominated junior teams across Australia. Kits include junior footballs, training bibs and ball carriers, and are valued at over $300 each.
It’s a season-long campaign, which saw sixty football packs donated to community junior football clubs across the country.
Along with donating equipment, we are also hoping to spread the word of the work done by Tackle Your Feelings, and encourage local football clubs to register for their free mental health training workshops.
Fight MND’s Big Freeze at the ‘G
Each year the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club host the annual ‘Big Freeze at the G’. This fixture on the Queen’s Birthday has grown to become one of the biggest in the AFL calendar and is the flagship fundraising event for the FightMND Foundation.
Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells (neurones) controlling the muscles that enable us to move around, speak, swallow and breathe fail to work normally and eventually die. With no nerves to activate them the muscles gradually weaken and waste.
Thanks to the fierce determination of Essendon legend and former Melbourne Coach Neale Daniher (himself living with MND), the event has raised millions to help find a cure for this insidious disease.
For the past four years, Zurich has been a key contributor to the Big Freeze at the ‘G campaign, donating a total of $135,000 to the cause.
Zurich further supports FightMND via our national Big Freeze Friday staff fundraising events in the lead up to the big Queen’s Birthday clash.
Round for Reach
For the past three 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 26 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 $100,000 to Reach since 2019 and we’re proud to be a major contributor to Round for Reach each season alongside Melbourne Football Club.
BCNA Pink Lady round
Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) is a not-for-profit organisation that supports Australians affected by breast cancer.
Each year Melbourne hosts the ‘Pink Lady’ round at the MCG, where players don pink jumpers or socks to raise awareness and funds for BCNA. 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 in a sign of unity.
Zurich supports the BCNA Round each year via national staff fundraising events and financial contributions to the foundation.
BCNA aims to ensure that Australians affected by breast cancer receive support, information, treatment and care appropriate to their needs.
BCNA is the peak national organisation for Australians affected by breast cancer and consists of a network of more than 100,000 individual members and 300 Member Groups.
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 10 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.
