Hampden league Kokoda football match to honour fallen

Melbourne-based Alfred Mallia, who travels to Warrnambool for work, believes sport is the ideal vehicle to tell the story of the 39^th Australian Infantry Battalion.

Warrnambool and Hamilton Kangaroos will celebrate Kokoda Day on Saturday with the senior footballers to play for a special shield.

The 39^th battalion, which was made up of mostly teenage militia, fought during World War II in the Kokoda Track Campaign and Battle of Buna-Gona.

Mallia said 23 servicemen from the south-west, including Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Camperdown, Hamilton, Mortlake, Colac, Koroit, Terang and Cobden, were part of the 39^th battalion.

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Blues operations manager Wally Steere said it was important to ensure the next generation understood sacrifices made during the war.

"It is good recognition for an untold story," he said.

"We are pretty keen to get the story told about players who have played in the Hampden league and done service.

"Anzac Day gets a big showing but the Kokoda Trail is an interesting one. It's one where a small group of very brave and resilient soldiers held off the enemy of the time. It is always good to have that recognition and if we in some way can provide a small part of that happening, we're more than happy to do that."

Steere said the Kokoda Day concept would become an annual event on the club's calendar.

There will be a service and a medal will be presented for best-on-ground in the senior football.

"Every time Hampden come and play us, we'll play for the trophy," he said.

"We should never lose sight or the facts on what was done, especially with what it provides us with today."

Mallia, who has crossed the Kokoda Track six times and has established a memorial at One Tree Hill in the Dandenong Ranges, said sport could be used a a vehicle to deliver important messages.

"The boys (who fought) were only 16, 17 or 18. You pull a 16-year-old (out of a footy team) and say 'you were actually fighting and killing people at this age in 1942', that is when it resonates," he said.

"I think sport is a great medium for that sort of thing."

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