NOVEMBER 2024 – Mansfield Recreation Reserve. 

The Melbourne Demons have arrived in town for the club’s yearly community camp.

Melbourne's AFL players are hitting the Mansfield Eagles’ home deck as Melbourne’s pre-season kicks into gear.

First the players will train, then sign signatures for the locals and pitch in to help out with the town’s Auskick clinic.

While most players are occupied with the next kick, the next contest or the next running block, Tom Campbell is thinking bigger.

The socially conscious Campbell, who has just arrived at the club to play a back-up role for club captain Max Gawn, is eyeing the local facilities through the perspective of his role as founder of Footy for Climate.

He wants to put solar panels on the club’s roof and install a battery to store the energy.

“Footy For Climate's the organisation I founded five years ago with one of my best mates Jasper Pittard,” Campbell says.

"We were playing at North Melbourne and the black summer bushfires were impacting communities around Australia, and I thought as an AFL player there's something that we can do collectively with our platform.”

“I founded the organisation to use the platform of AFL football to give back to grassroots clubs that are impacted by the impacts of climate change.”

Campbell’s work with the Mansfield Eagles with have a serious impact on their bottom line.

“We have been able to go to Mansfield Football Club this year and do our first Power Forward installation and put solar and batteries on that footy club.

“It’s saved them 8000 bucks a year about the equivalent of a major sponsorship for that club, so it's been a really great thing that I've been able to drive and be involved in.”

For Campbell, it’s the perfect intersection of he love for football and making a genuine impact on those around him.

“I love footy, and footy clubs are in communities right around our country and they're also being impacted, so for me my love of the game has been a real driving force behind doing this work.”