{"id":236866,"date":"2025-10-24T05:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236866\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T05:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:54:08","slug":"celebrating-culture-at-the-2025-unity-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236866\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating culture at the 2025 Unity Cup!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Team Fiji won the award for the AFL Value of Play Fair at the 2025 Unity Cup. Image: Chris Powney (Field of View Sports Photography)<\/p>\n<p>AFL Victoria is proud to have hosted another successful Unity Cup last weekend, celebrating culture, connection and community through the game we all love.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 Unity Cup was played on Sunday 19 October at Monash University in Clayton, and featured teams representing a range of cultures, including Indian, Sri Lankan, Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Bangladehsi and several African cultures.<\/p>\n<p>There were over 200 participants involved this year, as well as friends and families who participated as spectators and joined in the cultural celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>Participants were welcomed to the day with a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony performed by Bunurong Land Council.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the day, there was cultural entertainment by Indigenous Outreach Projects &amp; FEI Ying Dragon &amp; Lion Dance Association.<\/p>\n<p>At the conclusion of the carnival, team performances are celebrated with awards aligned to the AFL Values of Play as One Team, Play Fair, Play with Passion and Play to Win.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to the following award winning teams at the 2025 Unity Cup:<\/p>\n<p>Play as One Team: Bihar &amp; Jharkand Sabha Melbourne Victoria (BJSM Vic) (Open-Age)Play fair: Team Fiji (Open-Age)Play with passion: Multicultural Youth Group (Youth)Play to win: Team Pasifika (Youth)<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>About the Unity Cup<\/p>\n<p>The Unity Cup is carnival event organised by AFL\u202fVictoria that brings together culturally diverse communities to play and celebrate footy together.<\/p>\n<p>Teams participating are mainly formed from social engagements and connections, through community groups, organisations and through relationships that AFL Victoria have through its participation and engagement initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Teams at the Unity Cup play the modified version of Aussie Rules known as AFL Nines \u2014 nine-a-side, non-contact, more inclusive and accessible version of the game, allowing for people of all skill levels and experiences to play together and bond over footy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/play.afl\/victoria\/community-programs\/unity-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to learn more about the Unity Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Fiji won the award for the AFL Value of Play Fair at the 2025 Unity Cup. Image:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-236866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}