Pictured:
(Left-Right)
MC Bryan Taylor,
St Kilda captain
Luke Ball
and SCA
Honorary
Director
Gary Allsop
(photograph
courtesy
of Shannon
Morris)

On 13th December 2007
I attended the
inaugural Madden Medal, which is a series of community awards to retiring AFL players for services to the game and the community both on and off the field.

Recipients included Collingwood's Paul Licuria and Nathan Buckley, Essendon's James Hird and North Melbourne's Glenn Archer the winner of the major award the Madden Medal, named after the Madden brothers, Simon and Justin.

All AFL players contribute a percentage of their wages to a community charity fund. From this the AFL Players’ Association give three grants of $10,000 to reputable charities that have forwarded an application along with a nomination from an AFL player. During the year, I provided Glenn Archer with some information about SpinalCure Australia and he personally nominated our organisation to be eligible for a grant.

I went along to the function with no expectation, but was pleasantly surprised when it was announced that we were successful and I was very grateful to accept the $10,000 cheque.

We would sincerely like to thank the AFL Players’ Association and especially Glenn Archer for kindly nominating SpinalCure Australia.

Gary Allsop