Transplant Australia FC Chairman Ante Kelic: “There is no shortage of people who need support”

Liam Watson
Images provided by Transplant Australia

In an event that has been a long time coming, Transplant Australia Football Club will hold the inaugural Transplant Football World Cup in Cervia, Italy on September 8-14, 2024.

Due to COVID-19 being a major roadblock, the tournament has not been able to lift off – however with the dedication and perseverance of Transplant Australia and the World Transplant Games Federation, it is now going to be a reality.

It is headed by Transplant Australia, which is a charity that supports transplant recipients and their families, while also lending support to people on the waiting list, donor families, living donors, healthcare professionals and everyone associated with organ and tissue donation.

Transplant Australia FC is one example of the many sports and activities on offer that encourage physical activity for an increased chance of survival in transplant recipients.

As the Chairman of Transplant Australia FC, Ante Kelic has gone through his own experience and is now the perfect role model for others in a similar position, while also managing the operations ahead of September’s tournament.

In this interview with Soccerscene, Kelic discusses his involvement with Transplant Australia, an update on the World Cup, building a community and looking ahead over the coming months.

Tell us about your background and why you are involved?

Ante Kelic: I started playing in junior competitions for St Albans Dinamo out in Melbourne’s west.

I grew up with the game very much part of my life, however around the age of 18 years I started having a few health issues and was diagnosed with a liver condition called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

There was not too much trouble apart from the initial onset symptoms and flare ups such as a headache and swelling and for the most part I did not feel the full effect of it for another 3-4 years.

In the year 2000, I also got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease which isn’t uncommon for people who suffer from PSC.

At that time, I broke  into the seniors for St Albans, but it all came to a halt when I required surgery for Crohn’s disease at the age of 20. From 80 kilograms being a fit and active player, my weight  dropped down to 54kg.

The recovery was slow and through all the medications and treatments, I was hoping to get back to playing Premier League senior football but the side effects such as weight gain as a result of  fluid retention  lead me to   player in the lower divisions.

At the age of 34 I was playing social soccer, however I was told during that time  I needed a transplant as cirrhosis was getting to a serious stage of liver failure.

It was in 2014 that I got put on the transplant list and needed to wait seven months before I was offered the lifesaving transplant. At the same time my wife was four months pregnant and thankfully my daughter Iva was born soon after without major hiccups.

How did you find out about Transplant Australia FC?

Ante Kelic: It was in 2018 that I found out about the team through the late Matty Hempstalk who established the team two years prior.

I was introduced to the team by participating in an exhibition match which was known as the Doujon Zammit Shield – this was in honour of Doujon who passed away, but his parents donated his organs to save multiple lives.

A few years later, Matt – along with the CEO of Transplant Australia – came up with the idea to create an inaugural World Cup for transplant recipients and I thought that I could give a helping hand as it was something that involved heaps of work to organise.

With Matt’s passing, coupled with the pandemic, it has taken us a bit of time to recover and get back on our feet but now it is something I will contribute towards.

You had an Expression of Interest period for participants, what are the numbers looking like?

Ante Kelic: We ran a large campaign for a couple months that saw around 50 applications from men and women all around Australia who want to join the club.

In addition, we are going to run a development camp in Sydney on March 16-17 to get people together and support each other based on their transplant journeys.

Our main purpose is to help people with ongoing health issues and encourage active participation.

The underlying reason why we are there is to create awareness and educate people on the life saving gift of organ donation and the donation sign up process.

On your role as Chairman, what are the main priorities?

Ante Kelic: There is no shortage of people who need support before and after transplant.

Peronsally I have had not only with liver transplant recipients, but also those undergoing cancer treatment and that shock of being unwell and going into hospital where your life changes from that point – that is where I am willing to offer support and advice drawn upon my health journey.

To have someone to talk to is super important and I have also reached out to people myself when there were instances I lost energy or motivation during the difficult times.

The wait time for transplants can be mentally challenging – I waited seven months but some other recipients in my support group had to wait for more than two years. If you throw in the fact that hospital call ups do not always guarantee a transplant due to an inadequate match occurring, it is not easy to comprehend – I know of someone that had received the news four times.

Unfortunately, you do not know how far you get through the waiting list in terms of pecking order, so this is a challenge that we offer support and advice for.

How is it juggling your responsibilities?

Ante Kelic: There are some challenges to fit it all in with a young family and running my own business, but we do have some staff at Transplant Australia who do an excellent job supporting the club.

Part of the reason that the development camp in Sydney is going ahead is down to the Transplant Australia team securing a grant to benefit recipients.

Particularly for us, one of the factors is the distance between team members, making it costly to hold events due to travel and accommodation costs.

There is representation Australia-wide, so we offer in some instances where possible to subsidise recipients for travel, accommodation and meals for them to be able to attend these camps and remain active

Even though recipients recover from transplants, they can still have ongoing issues with their health they need to manage which affects their work and earning capacity. As a club, and Translpant Australia, we want to build longevity and sustainability to support the recipients in every way we can.

A lot of recipients reach out stating they want to do something more regularly and having a club in local competitions would be a great milestone.

Our goal is to increase the participation numbers and generate awareness through the amazing stories shared about the life saving donations that people have received.

However, we cannot do that without government, community and corporate sponsorship support.

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Active Club Program offers South Australian football clubs a funding boost

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Image Credits: Shutterstock 2327752993

South Australian football clubs can tap into another round of government support, with the Active Club Program offering grants of up to $3,000 to help clubs improve participation and strengthen their local communities. The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) opened its new round of funding on the 28th of August. Clubs have until midday on Wednesday, 14 October 2026 to apply.

The grassroots benefits

The South Australian Government has allocated $1.448 million to the round. Clubs with fewer than 100 members can receive $1,500. Clubs with 100 or more members can receive $3,000. The program targets grassroots sport, including football. It helps clubs purchase equipment and resources that make participation easier and more affordable.

Football clubs can use the funding for sporting equipment, uniforms and protective gear. They can also fund playing venue maintenance equipment, professional development, medical equipment and training. The program also supports projects that improve inclusion. Clubs can use grants for positive health initiatives and hardship subsidies. These measures can help remove barriers that stop people from playing sport.

That focus creates opportunities for football clubs to support more women and girls. It can also help clubs create more welcoming environments for players of different ages and backgrounds. Water and energy efficiency also form part of the program. Clubs can fund eligible initiatives that reduce water use or improve energy efficiency. That could prove particularly valuable for football clubs managing local playing venues and facilities. The program also allows minor club infrastructure upgrades and technology that directly supports participation or club sustainability.

Who is eligible?

To qualify, a club must operate as a not-for-profit sport or active recreation organisation in South Australia. It must have at least 20 members and have operated for at least 12 months.

ORSR will also consider a club’s participation profile when assessing applications. The assessment looks at female and male junior and senior participation, alongside factors such as the club’s affiliation and when it last received Active Club Program funding.

How to apply

The funding can make a direct difference at grassroots level. In the previous round, 558 South Australian clubs shared more than $1.4 million. The government says the investment helped clubs meet essential costs while supporting participation and inclusion.

For football, that support can stretch beyond the playing field. Stronger clubs create more opportunities for players, coaches and volunteers. They also provide places where people can build connections and stay active. Applications for Round 56 will be screened in November, assessed in December, with clubs notified in January 2027.

To learn more about the South Australian Active Club Program, visit their website.

The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

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If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

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