A week at the G with Milpa and the Melbourne Football Club
Milpa and students from Worawa Aboriginal College during the Guard of Honour on the MCG
Minum Barreng joined the Melbourne Football Club for the Sir Doug Nicholls Round AFL fixture between Melbourne and the Hawthorn Football Club on Saturday, 16 May at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
A beautiful, balmy day and a twilight game boasted a crowd of over 68,000 people, and a glorious win to the Demons.
Milpa the goanna was invited to attend and helped form the guard of honour for the Melbourne players, alongside some special guests from the Worawa Aboriginal College in Healesville and the designer of the 2026 Narrm guernsey for this Indigenous round – Vanetta Nampijinpa Hudson and her son Malakai, from the Nyirripi community in the Northern Territory.
L: Milpa and Malakai R: The Dees Banner
The Dees banner read ‘From Narrm to Nyirripi; Our hearts beat true; Connected forever; In red and blue’.
The Worawa students welcomed guests at the President's Club function with traditional dances, and Vanetta was acknowledged for her beautiful artwork. Malakai turned up with his Mum in suit and bow tie, but was itching to get his football gear on and run through the banner with the team and his hero, Kozzy Pickett. He also made friends with Milpa!
L: Mitchell Anjou and Milpa speaking with Megan Waters on the recent elimination of trachoma during halftime R: Mitchell Anjou and Milpa watching the game
To recognise the recent World Health Organisation announcement that trachoma had been eliminated in Australia as a public health problem, the Melbourne Football Club provided opportunity for this message to be shared in the Presidents Club function, as well as on the ground during a half-time break through interviews with Associate Professor Mitchell Anjou, head of Minum Barreng.
L: Milpa saying hello to the crowd with Emma Stanford R: Millpa and Malakai waving goodbye
Milpa was also on the field at halftime, dressed in his Dees guernsey and scarf, posing for selfies and high-fiving the enthusiastic crowd. This was a big thrill for Milpa and Minum Barreng appreciates and acknowledges the 16-year partnership enjoyed with the Melbourne Football Club supporting trachoma elimination health promotion.
L-R: Tom Newton, Matthew Whelan and Mitchell Anjou at NATSIEHC26
Earlier in the week, the Demons and Minum Barreng also combined forces to celebrate the trachoma elimination milestone at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Eye Health Conference 2026 – held at the MCG. Matthew Whelan, the Demon’s Indigenous Project Officer and Tom Newton, General Manager Consumer Business were interviewed by Mitchell Anjou in a plenary presentation highlighting the power of partnership.
Tom described hearing the news that trachoma had been eliminated as a public health problem in Australia as one of the proudest achievements he had contributed to in his career, ‘being part of something bigger and working alongside communities’. Tom and Matthew also shared the power of Milpa within communities, joking that ‘whoever invented Milpa was a genius’, after seeing firsthand the impact Milpa has had over many years, and the excitement and connection children and communities continue to have with the goanna mascot.
L: Emma Stanford, Lesley Martin and Tess Gellie at the Demons Indigenous guernsey launch R: Demon Players
At the same time, Lesley Martin and Emma Stanford were with the Melbourne Football Club players and staff to launch the 2026 Indigenous guernsey at AAMI Park. Lesley and Emma participated in a Question and Answer session about trachoma elimination, with Demons vice-captain Jack Viney acknowledging and celebrating the recent trachoma elimination milestone and the longstanding partnership with communities, the Demons and Minum Barreng.
Minum Barreng appreciates its enduring association with the Melbourne Football Club and our shared partnership with the communities across Central Australia and the Northern Territory. These meaningful partnerships have been built over time, through relationships, openness, humility, consistency and showing up again and again.
As we reflect on the elimination of trachoma in Australia, Minum Barreng and the Melbourne Football Club acknowledge the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, health workers, communities and partners who contributed across decades to make that possible. We further note the ongoing importance of maintaining efforts, through partnership and collaboration, focused on prevention to sustain this outcome.