Macquarie Banks Sports – an arm of the Macquarie Bank that aims to introduce children to sport by providing them with access to sporting role models – is a proud supporter of the On The Ball program in season 2006. The On the Ball program, which is run by the Bill Hutchison Foundation in conjunction with the Essendon Football Club, aims to promote harm prevention messages among the adolescent community.

More than 1000 Year students from regional Victoria and Melbourne’s north-west suburbs will be put through the On the Ball program in 2006. These students will have access to some of the biggest names at Essendon Football Club as well as Australian netball representatives.

""It is fantastic support being provided for Macquarie Bank Sports for what we think is a very worthwhile program,"" Essendon communications and community affairs manager Simon Matthews said.

""Support such as this significantly enhances the reach of the program and we think that will grow sports participation rates and ultimately address harm prevention issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, depression and obesity.

""It also fits particularly well with the charter of Macquarie Bank Sports in that it is giving these adolescents access to some of Australia’s most significant sporting role models. It works well on so many levels and we are thrilled to have Macquarie Bank Sports come on board as a supporter of this program.""