By Aaron Cordy
KICKING goals this Sunday, GV Stars host the Northern Conference at the Central Park Recreation Reserve.
Part of the Football Integration Development Association (FIDA), the conference has six teams, including Benalla, Wangaratta, Wodonga, North Albury, Echuca and GV Stars, made up of people with a disability to play Australian Rules Football. The free event will be an exciting day of round-robin matches with players aged from 14 to 40.
The GV Stars have been around for 16 years, giving locals a chance to play the game they love. They began with the aid of Valley Sports, before joining the FIDA conference. They moved around for several years until they found their home at Central Park thanks to the Shepparton East Football Netball Club.
Each team in the Northern Conference hosts a carnival, with each team playing three matches, each with two 10-minute halves.
“We have a good core of 18-19 players… All they want to do is just play footy. It’s all about playing footy; yes, they’d like to win as much as anyone else, but it’s all about playing the game,” said GV Stars President Darren Cook.
“Now we’ve got a home at Shepp East, we can run it more like a normal footy club, which is good. And the players enjoy it. We go to tea nights, which is before a carnival. We go to a tea night at Shepp East, and we get to read out our team like they do the other clubs, and all that sort of stuff. So, the players love all that.”
The free event will be a lot of fun, with the first match kicking off at 10am, Sunday, July 19, at the Central Park Recreation Reserve. The Shepparton East Football Club will run the canteen on the day. There will be a coffee van.
If anyone wants to get involved with GV Stars as a player, volunteer or sponsor, contact Darren Cook on 0407 344 391 and follow them on Facebook. While it is a little late to join the 2026 season, they will be looking for new recruits ahead of 2027.
