{"id":607546,"date":"2026-04-15T02:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T02:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:45:13","slug":"prince-harry-shows-off-footy-skills-at-mens-mental-health-event-in-melbournes-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607546\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry shows off footy skills at men’s mental health event in Melbourne’s west"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Harry has tried his hand at Aussie Rules football today in Melbourne’s west, enjoying a kick on the second day of his tour in Australia.<\/p>\n

The Duke of Sussex was welcomed to Whitten Oval in Footscray by members of the Western Bulldogs AFL team as part of an event for Movember.<\/p>\n

Football stars Tom Liberatore, Adam Treloar and Matthew Kennedy gave Harry a mini-coaching clinic at the oval, taking him through the basics of kicking and handballing in front of a throng of reporters.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Prince Harry showed off his athletic prowess with a kick in Melbourne’s west today. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Movember representatives said the event reflected Harry’s love of sports and his passion for men’s mental health awareness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a question and answer session on stage, Harry discussed his own focus on improving his mental health as he grew into fatherhood.<\/p>\n

“From my perspective, our kids are our upgrade,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s not how I was taught but that was my take on it \u2014 not to say I was an upgrade of my dad or that my kids are an upgrade of me.<\/p>\n

“That’s the approach that I take, to know that with the world the way that it goes, the kids that we bring up in today’s world need to be an upgrade.”<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Harry seemed particularly focused on his handballs as the Wiggles played behind him. (AP: Jonathan Brady)<\/p>\n

The Duke of Sussex also shared the challenges of balancing work and parenting.<\/p>\n

“Every single time I went to work and I came back \u2014 if I was stressed, the moment that I held [my son] Archie, he would start crying,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was now “fortunate enough” to work from home.<\/p>\n

After the session inside the facility, Harry took to the field to meet with the families of players, kick the footy with some children and watch a training session.<\/p>\n

The event was also attended by some of The Wiggles, providing Harry with a taste of Australia’s music scene.<\/p>\n

In a bold possible recruiting move, the club also presented Harry with Western Bulldogs guernseys featuring the names of his children, Archie and Lilibet.<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Prince Harry was given some personalised guernseys to take home with him. (AP: Jonathan Brady)<\/p>\n

Harry seemed particularly enamoured with the Sherrin, taking one with him as he left the ground.<\/p>\n

He and Meghan Markle arrived in Melbourne on Monday, beginning a multi-day tour of the country with a visit to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They also visited the Australian National Veterans’ Art Museum, and joined a pottery class with the children of veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair will also take trips to Canberra and Sydney during the visit, and make commercial speaking engagements and appearances at ticketed events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harry will fly to the nation’s capital later today for events at the Australian War Memorial, where he will meet with Indigenous veterans, and attend a Last Post Ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Harry has tried his hand at Aussie Rules football today in Melbourne’s west, enjoying a kick on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[638,64,63,134,49792,57055,155269,33664,45972,38930,100796,698],"class_list":{"0":"post-607546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-footscray","13":"tag-harry","14":"tag-harry-and-meghan","15":"tag-meghan-markle","16":"tag-prince","17":"tag-royal","18":"tag-visit","19":"tag-western-bulldogs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607546","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=607546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}