The AFL Umpires have this year donated $8250 to the 2025 Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.Each year the Umpires donate to the Good Friday Appeal via the Jeff Crouch Foundation, which was established in memory of former AFL Field Umpire Jeff Crouch. Having been a Melbourne Under 19’s premiership player and a Sandringhman footballer, Jeff successfully switched to umpiring. He umpired 186 VFL games including 5 VFL Grand Finals from 1963-1969. Jeff was also the Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal for more than 20 years and his contribution to the appeal lives on in the form of the annual donation made in his name.
This year, the AFL Umpires Association teamed up with McDonald Management and Events, who donated their services to launch a Charity golf day to help build on the donation that the AFL Umpiring community makes to the Good Friday Appeal. On Monday, around 50 golfers gathered at Green Acres Golf Club to raise funds for the three charities supported by the AFL umpires, with the Good Friday Appeal being the focus. AFL field umpires Mat Nicholls, Alex Whetton and Andre Gianfagna joined the day which raised $14,000 to support the charitable efforts of the AFLUA and current and past AFL umpires.
Following the golf, the highlight of the luncheon was hearing from two dads about the support the Children’s Hospital has provided their children and families. Leigh Jarvis, father of Kiani Jarvis, told the story of Kiani’s battle with leukemia. More of Kiani’ story can be found here. Daniel Payne, CEO of Down Syndrome Victoria (DSV), also spoke about how important the hospital has been in its support for his daughter Holly who has Downs Syndrome. In a week where funding cuts were slated to some of the support services made available to patients and their families, the stories underlined the importance of supporting the Children’s Hospital charity to ensure it can continue to provide world’s best service for the children of Victoria.
Anyone who would like to donate to the Jeff Crouch Foundation, can do so using this link. Donors should search for the ‘Jeff Crouch Memorial’ from the drop-down list and then follow the prompts. The receipt will be issued from Shout for Good instantaneously.
Thanks to those organisations that supported the day with Melbourne City Toyota being the major sponsor, and special thanks Sally McDonald devoting her energy to the organisation of the day. Special mention to the hole and prize sponsors; Wilson Business Services, Kearney Group, McQueen Lending, Elevate Electrical and Data, AFL Players Association, North Melbourne Football Club, The Melbourne Chippy, Clutch and Co, Commvision Australia, Devers List, Tobin Brothers Funerals, Linfox, PTP, Monty Earthworks, DyeCo and Golf Studio.