The West Coast Eagles have shown their continued support for the 16 days in WA campaign, speaking out for global activism against gender-based violence during its launch at Optus Stadium.

Eagles defender Tom Barrass and AFLW midfielder Aisling McCarthy attended the launch alongside West Coast Eagles Chief Executive Officer Trevor Nisbett.

During his speech to attendees, Barrass spoke about the importance of speaking up in any professional environment, whether it is on the footy field or in the corporate sector.

“It comes down to equality and having equal opportunity for all. I find this particularly important as an athlete who has been lucky enough to have an ample number of opportunities throughout my career,” he said.

“Listening to industry leaders, I’ve learned as athletes it’s our job to use our platforms to advocate for campaigns such as this and it gave me the tools to understand my role in this space.

“It’s about building social infrastructure to create a society where we are comfortable outlying disrespect and calling out jokes and derogatory terms you hear.

“I hope to keep building on this to a point – whether it’s in business or through policy change – so we don’t have to be up here talking about it because we’ve been successful in breaking that cycle.” 

For the second straight year Barrass will be one of the campaign’s Agents of Change and will be joined by AFLW star Jessica Sedunary and AFLW senior coach and former Eagles player Michael Prior.

The campaign is run by the West Australian Government and held from 25 November (International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women) through to December 10 (Human Rights Day).

During the campaign West Coast will wear orange socks during a training session and have invited Minister Simone McGurk to speak to the playing group on the importance of the campaign. 

Entering its sixth year, the campaign is themed around the tagline ‘Ending violence against women – it’s everybody’s business’, calling on all Western Australians to speak up and contribute to positive change towards the safety and respect of women in our community.

More information on 16 Days in WA, including the campaign kit, is available online.