Umpires Billy Oggero, Chris Egan and Kris Marshall will wear yellow to raise awareness for cancer research.
FIRST they were turning pink, now Colac district football umpires will go yellow.
Colac and District Football Umpires Association will promote the AFL’s Call to Arms round this week by swapping their traditional orange uniforms for yellow in tomorrow’s senior football clash between Lorne and Birregurra.
The Call to Arms campaign raises awareness and money for the Cancer Council.
Association vice president Fiona Marshall encouraged people to donate at www.calltoarms.com.au but said the umpires would raise awareness tomorrow.
“If people would like to donate they can go on the website and donate, but the umpires decided in the first year just to raise awareness, next year we might go a bit bigger,” she said.
“This Call to Arms day is something we wanted to do, we’ve done pink days this year to raise money for the McGrath Foundation breast cancer research so we thought ‘why not get on board and do something for the fellas as well?’
“We’ve had umpires touched by this in the past.”
The Call to Arms campaign began in 2006 when Essendon Football Club players wore yellow armbands, in the inaugural Clash For Cancer match against Melbourne Football Club, to support team mate Adam Ramanauskas who was undergoing intensive treatment for cancer.
The AFL fined Essendon $20,000 for wearing the armbands, and later agreed that the club could donate the fine to the Cancer Council, Essendon’s preferred charity.
