Barry Hall takes LIVIN into the ring

“This journey has been so much fun yet hard work and I have loved every minute of it.” Said Barry Hall of his recent boxing match, Code War, with former NRL player Paul Gallen. 

The highly anticipated match seeing the two codes AFL and NRL take their rivalry of codes in to the ring saw Barry Hall who played for St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans representing AFL whilst Paul Gallen, former captain of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks represented NRL. 

With both sides engaging in rigorous training regimes leading up to the boxing match that was held in the Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne on the 16th of November, the crowd was full of supporters from both codes in addition to mix of sporting and entertainment celebrities there to watch the mighty battle. 

However, it was Barry’s message and his selfless representation of a mental health charity and a goal to break the stigma surrounding mental health that got a lot of attention, with that mental health charity being LIVIN. 

As Barry and his family are based on the Gold Coast, it was important to him to represent a message that was close to home in more ways than one.  “LIVIN seemed to be one of the better known mental health charity’s here on the Gold Coast and are doing some amazing work in schools and the community.” Said Barry.  “After meeting the team and having the same vision about educating people about the importance of keeping mentally ‘fit’, we teamed up.”

LIVIN Co-Founder Casey Lyons was also humbled by Barry’s offer to represent the charity. “What you may not know is that Barry approached us as mental health is something that he is personally very passionate about.” Said Casey.  “We are extremely grateful and humbled to have Barry and his #Halligans team represent LIVIN through his journey and have received nothing but positive commentary since.  We have no doubt through Barry’s actions, we have both been able to positively impact peoples lives.” 

With sponsorship and brand representation playing such a big part in sports and televised events, it said a lot about Barry as a person and an advocate for mental health, pushing other endorsement opportunities aside and choosing to spread a message instead of a paid sponsorship and on behalf of the team at LIVIN and all of those supporters of mental health awareness, we thank Barry, Lauren, his family and the support of Halligans team for representing the cause and starting conversations that It Ain’t Weak To Speak. 

Image: Barry Hall Instagram @barryhallofficial