A footy-tipping competition launched at Infinite Care Cornubia has grown into a national contest involving 520 residents and staff, earning the local aged-care home a place as a national innovation award finalist.
Cornubia general manager Michael Muchamore said the competition began locally before expanding across the provider’s Australian homes.
“We commenced our own competition with just our care home in 2023,” Mr Muchamore said.
“This expanded to a national competition through an idea by myself in 2025 and has continued into 2026, and hopefully beyond.”
Mr Muchamore said the inaugural national competition attracted 475 residents and staff across 17 homes in 2025.
“In its first year as a national competition in 2025, it had around 15 per cent of our total resident and staff population, with 475 entrants,” he said.
“The competition grew in 2026 as our resident and staff population increased to 520 entrants.”
Cornubia completed a clean sweep of the national NRL competition in 2025, with resident Tom Neale winning the resident title on 138 points and staff member Mitch W topping the staff competition with 133.
Across the AFL and NRL competitions, more than 40 people recorded at least one perfect round and the longest winning streak reached 15 games.
The Brisbane Lions were the most frequently selected team nationally.
Mr Muchamore said paper tipping cards and staff support made the competition accessible to residents with differing needs and levels of football knowledge.
“All residents were welcome to participate through tipping cards,” he said.
“The resident engagement team helped them pick teams based on their nicknames—for example, the Roosters in the NRL, who were earlier known as Eastern Suburbs.”
Each home awarded prizes to its leading resident and staff tipsters, while the national resident winners received framed jerseys.
A digital leaderboard allowed the homes to compare their results each week.
“We developed a Power BI for the care homes to view each week, which was a quick and simple way of creating some friendly competition,” Mr Muchamore said.
Resident Colin Rawlings said football had become a regular source of conversation.
“I am kicking myself now that I didn’t start at the beginning of the season. I am doing really well and could have been up there on top of the ladder,” Mr Rawlings said.
“The weekend football is a hot topic at our dinner table.”
Another resident, John Jaensch, said following the leaderboard had become a weekly highlight.
“It is getting very exciting. Only four games to go. There are some tough games in the last four weeks, so I am going to have to study the games,” Mr Jaensch said.
“My highlight of the week is looking at the leaderboard and seeing that I am still on top.”
The Cornubia initiative was one of three finalists in Ageing Australia’s 2026 Organisation–Innovation category.
The awards program received more than 470 nominations across all categories.
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