Inclusion takes centre stage when you watch wheelchair sport in action.
Have you watched a game of sport between people with disabilities? Let me assure you, it is no walkover for any of the players. Whether it is wheelchair, basketball or football, the players are fully committed. Chairs clash, people tumble, quickly being helped back into their chair, hands move fast over the wheels, manoeuvring the player into the position of attack. Balls are quickly thrown (if playing basketball) or handballed (if we are watching footie), as wheelchairs crash, disengage, reform. It is exciting, mesmerising and passionate. Like all sportspeople, the players take no prisoners. They are there to win!
In late October the 2025 Toyota AFL Open was held in partnership with Disability Sports Australia (DSA), with Wheelchair Grand Final Day held at LaTrobe University in Melbourne.
Joel Fernandes was selected by Queensland Sporting Wheelies to play in the 2025 Toyota AFL Open Grand Final day in the number 3 jumper. Sadly for the Queenslanders, the NSW Blues won, 52 to 45. 2025 Toyota AFL Open – Wheelchair | Grand Final Day. It shows the passion, the speed and the intensity of the players. They really know how to tackle each other in their chairs!
Victoria won Division 1 (Wheelchair); NSW/ACT won Division 2 (Wheelchair); Tasmania won Division 1 (Inclusion) and Northern Territory – Division 2 (Inclusion).
And in very special news, Joel was awarded the Most Valued Player on the ground in the final of wheelchair competition at the AFL Open Grand Final Day last month when his Queensland team competed in Melbourne, finishing in second place.
For over 60 years, DSA has been promoting and supporting disabled sports along with seeking to expand opportunities for people with disability across the country. On its website, Disability Sports Australia describes itself as “disability-agnostic, focusing on building the capability of sports organisations to ensure inclusive and accessible opportunities for people with disability”.
DSA’s ultimate goal is to build a future where sport is inclusive for all Australians.
The AFL Executive General Manager of Game Development, Rob Auld, is deeply committed to the AFL’s passion to actively support people of all abilities to stay active.
“With more than 18,000 people with disability now participating in AFL programs across the country, the AFL Open continues to expand opportunities and strengthen pathways from grassroots to elite,” Mr Auld stated.
Joel Fernandes is a dear friend of The Leprosy Mission. Apart from being married to Helen, our Head of International Programs, he is also a role model for fellow disabled sports people, who love his passion for all sports and his optimism for life.
Name a sport, and you can probably just about guarantee that Joel will have tried it. Joel’s spinal cord was severed as a result of a serious car accident in Timor. He was just 26. The local hospital provided no guarantee of safety due to the ongoing civil war between East and West Timor. He spent two and a half years as a total invalid, at the mercy of friends and relatives to carry him around.
A fairy godparent, in the form of Motivation UK, gave him back his life. The gift came in the form of a wheelchair. And not only did he receive a chair, he also was given the essential instruction on how to use the chair, especially how to transfer from chair to bed.
“Without instruction,” Joel explained, “I would still be on the ground!”
And once Joel conquered the transfer process, a whole new world opened up for this man who does not quit.
This extraordinary Timorese man was introduced to Spinal Life Australia, and there at the spinal cord injury unit, he discovered sport…many sports to be precise.
Joel started at the social level, but it wasn’t long before he moved up the ranks into competitive tournaments. He now plays at competitive level, rugby, basketball (as mentioned above), AFL, pickle ball, archery, through Sporting Disabilities.
Today on 3 December is the International Day of People with Disability 2025, with the theme “fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress”. Sport has enabled Joel to embrace inclusion. No longer does he have to rely on others to live life. One special chair on wheels revealed a whole new world for Joel.
Disability inclusion is a no brainer for Leprosy Mission Australia. You could say it is in our DNA. So specific days that seek to remind all of us about caring for people, whatever their ability or disability, are warmly embraced by us.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that ‘people with disability are more likely than those without disability to have poor general and mental health’.
This doesn’t surprise Leprosy Mission, as we have witnessed people who, when cured of leprosy, are often physically, mentally and psychologically restored. Their mental health changes for the better.
Joel was very concerned for his future. He could see only darkness ahead.
“After my accident,” Joel explained, “I thought I won’t be able to work again, or have a girlfriend or a wife. Once I had the training, I realised I could do things.
“I’ve got a life,” he said with some amazement.
Joel now works with Sporting Wheelies, under the auspices of Spinal Life Australia.
“It’s a casual position,” Joel explained. “My work is going to schools to play wheelchair basketball with the students and tell my story of how I got my disability.
“We put the students in wheelchairs and sometimes if they have someone with a disability at their school, we try to raise awareness about disability, and how they should treat their friends with disability equal with others. Also, that they can still do lots of things.
“And because I also play lots of sports, it always keeps me busy.”
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