Sport
18 July, 2024
TAC and AFL Victoria launch TAC Road Safety Round for its sixth season for education
It’s a round of significant importance for football and netball across Victoria this weekend, with Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) Road Safety Round taking on extra significance around the state this year. All football and netball clubs...
It’s a round of significant importance for football and netball across Victoria this weekend, with Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) Road Safety Round taking on extra significance around the state this year.
All football and netball clubs will come together this week to mark the sixth year of Road Safety Round. This includes clubs around the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League, as well as the neighbouring Bendigo Football Netball League and Ballarat Football League.
Set up by the TAC in conjunction with AFL Victoria, the goal of the program is to spark a conversation between football and netball clubs over road safety, particularly given 157 people have lost their lives on Victoria’s roads this year — with 84 of them, sadly, on regional roads.
In the greater Maryborough district, road safety has been at the forefront this year, particularly after the tragic road deaths over the last 12 months of prominent town figure Craig Jennings in November, 2023, as well as Natte Yallock Primary School principal Soraya Hepburn in May this year.
Clubs will be tasked to spread the message of road safety and reducing the risk through activations at the urging of the TAC and AFL Victoria, with each football captain wearing a special jumper with the number zero on their backs this weekend.
Players on all teams, both for football and netball, will wear blue armbands to honour the lives that have been lost on the road.
The message for this season from the TAC is that members should “Show up for your team. Slow down on the road”, with the TAC also encouraging peer-to-peer conversations at clubs, with cultures shifting around road safety and ensuring everyone is safe on the road.
Head of AFL Victoria Greg Madigan said it was a simple message to preach to players for road safety, particularly given the large amount of travel players make to play in country sports.
“Road Safety Round has become an important milestone on the community footy calendar, sending a really clear message that we all need to play a role to keep ourselves and our wider communities safe when driving,” he said.
Minister for Roads and Road Safety Melissa Horne says football and netball clubs are important to start crucial conversations.
“Local football and netball clubs are often at the heart of their communities and are in a great position to lead important conversations about being safe on our roads,” she said.