There will be mud, music, beers, costumes, dogs, footy and maybe even a streaker or two.
Forget the North Melbourne-Collingwood game at Marvel Stadium: Sunday’s real footy blockbuster will be at Victoria Park in Abbotsford, according to the organisers of the 31st Reclink Community Cup.
Community Cup veteran and Triple R presenter Chris Gill will play for the 15th straight year on Sunday.Credit: Arsineh Houspian
“If you’ve never been before, it’s one of the most unique days in Melbourne,” said Chris Gill, a Cup veteran of 15 years.
For the initiated, the “Comm Cup” is an annual mixed-gender amateur footy match and fundraiser held between the city’s musicians and its community radio hosts.
Melbourne’s musos are the Rockdogs in black, red and yellow, while the red and white striped Megahertz comprises on-air hosts from Triple R 102.7FM and PBS 106.7FM.
“We do lots of high jinks. There’s gags galore and there’s flash mobs,” said Gill, who also hosts a funk show on Triple R and owns Northside Records in Fitzroy.
“We like to describe it as football played next to over 10,000 people. Throw into that mix family, fun and friends and dogs, cats, and music and dancing and costumes.”
The aim is to raise at least $200,000 each year for Reclink Australia, which provides low-cost sport programs to disadvantaged communities nationwide.
Gill, one of the longest-serving Cup players, said his team had been training for two months.
“There are people playing [this year] who’ve never even watched a football game before,” he said.
Some of the onfield action from the 2019 game.Credit: Scott McNaughton
“So you have to get the skills up to basic skill level … we’re dealing with radio people who are not sports people at all.”
Cup games began in Melbourne in 1993 and in the early years they were played at the Ross Gregory and Junction ovals in St Kilda. The crowds grew and in 2009 it moved to Elsternwick Park, and then headed north to Victoria Park in 2017.
Sister events have now expanded to Sydney, Adelaide, Fremantle, Hobart, Brisbane and Canberra.
You am I frontman Tim Rogers played his final game. Credit: Scott McNaughton
For more than three decades, this part-concert, part-amateur footy match has featured big names either pull on the boots or entertain the crowds, among them Paul Kelly, Tim Rogers, Tex Perkins, Dan Sultan, Courtney Barnett, Felix Riebl, Magic Dirt, TISM and The Living End.
This year’s musical line-up includes childhood duo Whistle & Trick (which includes Kelly’s daughter, Maddy), Melbourne rock band Floodlights, rapper and singer Kaiit, Daddy Cool’s Ross Wilson, rap duo Teether & Kuya Neil and the UV Race, an “idiot savant punk rock”.
Gill said Sunday’s event also put the spotlight on the tight-knit live music scene in Melbourne, which has been struggling since COVID-19 with skyrocketing costs and lower patronage during the cost-of-living crisis.
“It’s a great day for the local area. Because if there’s been 10,000 people plus in the area then all the hotels and bars after the match get very celebratory – including with the Cup itself– long into the night,” he said.
“The Tote and the Gaso [Gasometer Hotel] and all these places fill up, and it’s a lovely feeling.”
Gates open at 11am at Victoria Park on Sunday. Tickets are available online.
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