Putting the boot into Emergency Services at AFL rounds

West Coast Eagles may not have walked away winners at the weekend’s Emergency Services round, but St John WA did after running down the competition in the quarter-time Emergency Services sprint.

The Saturday night game against Brisbane Lions at Optus Stadium drew a home crowd of 50,802, which resulted in a 13.15 (93) to 10.9 (69) bruising clash in the two-time reigning premiers’ favour.

St John WA paramedics Nick Overington, Daniel Fleay, and Kad Combes must have taken heart from the Eagles early lead in the opening quarter to beat WA Police and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) personnel in the running relay race – cheered on by Kura Bear and 12 fellow St John WA teammates.

Sixteen team members from Urgent Care, Event Health Services, Youth & Community, Patient Transport, Fleet and Radio, ambulance and support services formed a ‘guard of honour’ at the start of the game, with Nick from Medical Directorate taking the coin toss.

St John was also well represented at the stadium’s ‘fan zone’ on the Western Concourse where ambulance familiarisation tours, DRSABCD test and CPR races were conducted by the First Aid Awareness team.

St John will again face off against WA Police and DFES at Optus Stadium in an opening kick at goal for the Fremantle Dockers’ Lights and Sirens round on July 31.

Two team members will flash ambulance lights at every goal scored by the Dockers against the Western Bulldogs.

The top of the AFL ladder team are expected to be cheered on to the ground by 15 St John team members from SCC, Urgent Care, regional and metro ambulance, including transport officers.