In a head-to-head match-up between Melbourne City FC and Victoria Police, both teams are determined to leave it all on the field in a soccer match-up for the annual Blue Ribbon Cup.
To be held this coming Friday, 12 September at Narre Warren South P-12 College, the VicPol team has its eyes set on the win, but more importantly, the greater message that the day sends.
Senior Sergeant Gurkarnvir Singh said that “the greatest thing about this sports event is that it takes us out of the uniform”.
“We’re not this person that’s wearing a big vest, has a radio blaring, we’re just there to have a fun time,” he said.
The Blue Ribbon Cup is an annual AFL match contested between Hawthorn and St Kilda FC, and was established in 1999 in honour and remembrance of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller, both of whom were tragically killed in the line of duty in Moorabbin in 1998.
It stands as one of the AFL’s most enduring traditions dedicated to honouring fallen officers, and, shortly after the deaths of Silk and Miller, the VicPol Blue Ribbon Foundation was formed.
The Cup itself is among several efforts by the Foundation to celebrate service, raise awareness, foster community support, and, for Singh, to bridge the gap between officers such as himself and the younger generation.
“For the younger generation, they would kind of see us as people as opposed to just being police officers, and that we’re just like them,” Singh said.
“We make mistakes on the soccer pitch, we get emotionally charged in the game, and I think for the kids that I’ve had these events with, they, at the end, go, ‘oh, you’re like us too’.”
Singh, as someone who joined the New Zealand police force when he was just 19 years old, said that having that connection with the younger members of the community, and that they are not just “Robo-cops”, but instead other people, is what really matters.
Sunil Menon, the head of community from Melbourne City FC, said that the club’s members have been looking forward to the match, but also that, like Singh’s sentiments, it is recognised as a bridge to others.
“Football, being such a global sport, attracts so many different cultures and backgrounds, and I think in the southeast in particular, where it’s a melting pot of different cultures, football can be a language that everyone speaks,” he said.
“I think it also makes people see the bigger picture of what life can be about, how football can help in that.
“It also just builds friendships, right? I think when you play against someone, you build a connection, you share a meal with them afterwards.”
Both Menon and Singh also lamented that the upcoming match, and its historic foundations, come heavier, especially following the deaths of two police officers at Porepunkah.
Likewise, both told the story of a young boy whom local police had become acquainted with for alleged crimes such as graffiti or shoplifting.
However, after playing one of Cup’s matches, it became a moment of realisation that they too were people like him.
“It’s that shared passion, whether it be soccer, cricket, AFL, it’s that coming together to achieve something,” Singh said.
“It breaks down those barriers, that ‘us and them’ mentality, and it’s where you can connect at a level where the youths understand what you’re saying.
“You’re not going to have the greatest conversation around Minecraft with all the police officers, but with sport, it’s like a generational bridge.”
Menon added that with so many cultures coming together to play the sport, there is no doubt that many come from places where people’s experiences with law enforcement “have been negative”.
He said that it would be no surprise if those perceptions came with them as they moved here; hence the importance of these events, something he described to shed light on the unknown.
“For a lot of young people, when they realise that police are actually here to help, here to protect, all the while during football, it really becomes a big part of what we do in these matches,” Menon said.
“It’s about rooting for the same team, the kids finding it funny that some of these officers are actually good at the sport; it’s about finding those connections.”
The day’s event will begin with a curtain raiser match between the Narre Warren Girls team and the Gleneagles Girls team from 11:30am to 12:30pm.
This will be followed by the Blue Ribbon Cup starting at 1pm until 2:30pm, with short presentations to follow.
