Emus' Orange Black Tie Scrum Ball, Gotcha4Life charity drive for club's Mental Health Round 7

In only a matter of only hours, tickets for the Orange Black Tie Scrum Ball sold out back in early April, with this year's 350 event-goers set to dress to the nines in support of mental wellbeing.

"Unfortunately, we haven't had it for the last two years, obviously COVID-affected, so we're really excited to reintroduce it back into the Central West this year," Emus Rugby Union Club president and Orange Black Tie Scrum Ball committee member, Jamil Khalfan said.

Having fundraised for the batyr Australia charity previously, the club has been engaging with a different organisation for the past two years, which sees the Gotcha4life organisation at the helm of the 2022 gig for the first time.

"They do some really great work around empowering people and encouraging mental fitness," Mr Khalfan said.

"Many charities will do a lot of mental health work around raising awareness, but with these guys, their mission is to increase one's own mental fitness - so, giving you the abilities and techniques to cope with different situations, rather than just identifying people who are at risk.

"So, you're helping out your mates, as well as supporting yourself to be in a good place so you are actually able to help out others."

Following a devastating injury during a home game on April 23, the life-changing event made waves across the wider Central West rugby community, understandably hitting the Emus hardest.

An integral part of supporting the club through this and other downfalls, Mr Khalfan says the Gotcha4Life Foundation has made a significant impact in laying a healthy foundation for mental wellness.

"We've had lots of struggles this year with specific injuries and other situations that would put rugby people at risk and the serious spinal injury to one of our players, that's obviously been a really big one for us," he said.

"So we've really been keeping mental fitness at the forefront - creating conversations, challenging one another to be open, using techniques we've learned in the Gotchya4Life workshops - because it's going to help our rugby community long-term in being able to process serious issues, as well as tackling any other concerns in the future."

Having raised a pre-event figure of $15,830 already, the Emus club has also dedicated its round seven to mental health, where matches will be played against Forbes before the evening kicks off on June 4.

"The idea to brand this as the rugby mental health round is to spread this across the rugby community on bigger scale," Mr Khalfan said.

"We're going to ask Forbes, for next year, to then go and play a different side and they can engage a mental health round on the same weekend that we'll engage a different club as well, so you get this sort of exponential effect - where this year, there's two clubs involved and the next year there'll be four, then there'll be eight the following year and so on.

"So, the hope is that, within a couple of years we've then engaged the wider rugby community to recognise that this can have a positive affect on a lot of other clubs and their rugby communities, as well."

The Orange Black Tie Scrum Ball will be at the Emus home ground at Endeavour Oval on Woodward street, starting from 6:30pm until late.

Founder of Gotcha4Life, Gus Worland will deliver a short talk on a few mental health strategies, with live entertainment to include Orange's acoustic trio band, 'On The Tins'.

The club will also draw its major raffle and provide food, wine and music into the night - all while pinning wellbeing as the driving force behind the event.

"We always talk about being physically fit - going to the gym, making sure that we can get out on the field and be strong, be fit and be fast - but often, we can neglect the mental health side of things and this charity has really helped us to put a bigger focus on that," Mr Khalfan said.

"So, the scrum ball is an opportunity where we can put a focus on speaking out and being mentally fit, because in any community, it's a really good idea to have these sorts of strengths that you can implement throughout it.

"For our club, rugby is something that binds us all together."

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