The Reclink Community Cup is a charity football match series in Sydney and Melbourne, where musicians go head to head with the media.

This year, Adelaide will host its first match on Sunday August 16^th, which will see local musicians and media fight it out on the field at Coopers Stadium in Norwood.

There is no guarantee what could happen, nor whether any of the players will have had any prior experience with the game; what is known, though, is that it’s all for a good cause.

Reclink is an organisation that engages people, who are experiencing disadvantage, through sport and music programs.

Adelaide Community Cup organiser, and legendary local musician, Koral Chandler says she brought the event to us to link communities, and help those less fortunate.

“We wanted to bring this event to Adelaide because it’s a great day for a great cause. Plus, we wanted to see how many musos and media types were handy with a Sherrin, and get some friendly competition going between these important Adelaide communities,” she says.

The Reclink Community Cup is entirely volunteer run and backed by local community radio stations Three D Radio, Radio Adelaide and Fresh927.

The Community Cup has a 21-year history in its hometown of Melbourne, where it grew from a small match to an event attracting crowds in excess of 10,000.

The Sydney sister event was launched in 2011, with this year bringing Adelaide and Perth into the mix.

Never ones to back down from a bit of friendly competition, The Upside News will be getting involved, with music reviewer Matthew Trainor taking to the field, and Editor Libby Parker probably serving oranges or something other than doing sport.

Matthew is keen to be involved to connect with the community and have some fun.

“It’s a great opportunity to connect with other media people and musicians. Both industries are fairly independent and autonomous, so this is a rare opportunity to get together and play football badly,” he laughs.

“It’s a great cause too, which makes it an even better reason to dust off the footy gear and suffer some muscular aches.”

The teams are still looking for players and the event needs volunteers, so if you’re keen to be involved with The Rockatoos or The Anchors, contact Koral Chandler.

There are other ways to get involved as well; if you’re not into ball sports, or if you’re in a different industry to music or media, you can still get on board.

People can sponsor from as little as $1 to raise money for Reclink Australia – an organisation that engages people experiencing disadvantage through sport and music programs.

The game is a success in other states, and Koral says we can make the same difference here.

“Something that Dan Sultan said to the team in Melbourne the other day brought us all to tears: he said, ‘You know it only takes $5000 to run a rural community football league for a whole year – that league can engage an entire community and help stop instances of drug and alcohol abuse and even suicide amongst young males,'” she says.

“Last year Reclink Aus was defunded to the tune of $500000. If we can raise just a fraction of that to keep them going, we’re doing ok.”

People can also donate money on the day, and just coming along and buying a beer will go towards the charity.

The Reclink Cup need players, but they also need umpires, crowd control, volunteers and marquees.

Contact us here at The Upside News (contact@theupsidenews.com), or get in touch with Koral Chandler (koral.chandler@gmail.com), if you want to get involved.

For more information, check out the Facebook page.

By Libby Parker
Photo supplied