Visy is proud to—once again—sponsor the Singapore Sharks, Singapore’s only Australian Rules Football club.
The Singapore Sharks, formed in 2007, compete in games run by AFL Asia with over 20 countries across Asia participating. The league experienced a 22% increase in participation in 2022 with further growth expected this year.
Visy’s support helps the Singapore Sharks continue to grow participation, particularly girls, and cover the cost of ground hire and equipment. Last year, over 360 children played a 16 week season, including 10 weeks of training and six weeks of lightning round games.
Jonathan Glickfeld, General Manager at Visy Singapore said sponsoring the club was a natural fit.
“Off the field, Visy’s Singapore operations are closely aligned with what we’re doing in Australia so it made sense for us to bring people together on the field for a bit of fun. We’re glad to have brought people together around their shared love of sport, particularly given it’s Australia’s national game! Everyone is welcome to join and the club does a great job of promoting the sport to girls.”
Singapore Sharks president Mark Houghton said Visy’s sponsorship helped grow female participation.
“Visy’s support allowed us to subsidise fees for girls, successfully encouraging them and their parents to get involved.
“Our objective is to continue to grow their female playing group, to achieve a 50:50 gender split. Along with Visy’s support, we’re working with the AFL on a structured program to boost female participation.
“This year we’re hoping to get over 400 children involved, exceeding our pre-pandemic membership.”
Over the past three years, the club has focused on increasing female participation, to make the club more inclusive and align with the gains made in female participation through the rise of AFLW. In 2018 there were 17 female players, 102 in 2021 and 110 in 2022.
The club launched the 2023 season at the end of January with nearly 90 girls joining a clinic led by two Carlton AFLW players, Darcy Vescio and Jessica Jones.
Watch Darcy Vescio talk about the launch in Singapore. [link to video interview]
Follow the Singapore Sharks on Facebook.
Visy Singapore’s headquarters is home to our logistics team, our recycling, pulp and paper trading team and Build Run Repair for Singapore.
[Image description: A women Australian Rules Football player in navy blue guernsey is looking at a group of girls with their back to the camera, they are all wearing the same green football guernsey.]
