Martin Knezevic Cup is an annual football tournament hosted by Hurstville Zagreb FC that is “dedicated to the memory of the clubs former player, coach and friend Martin Knezevic” (Hurstville Zagreb FC).

Sadly, a player passed away at the Martin Knezevic Cup in 2014, creating an even larger community impact, awareness and drive for the annual event to go on.

Heartbeat of Football

Heartbeat of Football (HOF), established by Andy Paschalidis, partnered with Hurstville Zagreb FC to help promote healthy hearts at Martin’s Cup on Sunday 23rd February.

“There is a tendency to focus on health issues only after a tragedy. Heartbeat of Football would like to change this by proactively preparing as many people as possible for such an event as ever-increasing members of community see the benefits of, and enjoy taking part in, amateur sport.” (HOF)

Response For Life and Victor Chang Nurses partnered with Heartbeat of Football, together contributing to help the community via player education, heart health checks and defibrillator awareness.

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute is “the home of heart research, to fight heart disease.” They are taking action to help people of all ages survive and avoid heart disease.

They were performing free Heart Health Checks at the event, as part of their community action to actively start the conversation early about checking, monitoring and maintaining heart health.

Their Heart Health Checks measured:

• Blood Pressure
• Blood Sugar
• Total Cholesterol

The Victor Chang Nurses discussed results confidentially with each participant, advising certain health ranges, tips to improve the results and whether it would be best to chat to a GP or not.

Response For Life

John and Kristian from the Response For Life team contributed through hands on Defibrillator and CPR awareness.

Participants had opportunity to use a variety of Defibrillator devices and practice on CPR manikins. This gave everyone a chance to get familiar and confident in performing basic CPR, Defib use and what to do in an emergency.

Coming Together For Heart Health

Heartbeat of Football, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute & Response For Life combine the components of heart health. Thank you to Heartbeat of Football for bringing us together to help save lives.

Awareness – Heartbeat of Football:

Player education in healthy hearts in sport
Minimisation of health risks
Installation of defibrillators on all sporting fields around the country

Prevention – Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute:

Reduce risk of heart disease
Identify heart health problems early
Monitor and control heart health

Action – Response For Life:

Defibrillator (AED) onsite and ready
Community confident to perform CPR and use the available AED Defibrillator
Recognise the signs of when to call for emergency help, start CPR and use a Defibrillator (sudden collapse, non responsive and not breathing)

Photos From Martin Knezevic Cup 2020