For these three friends, raising money for cancer is deeply personal

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“I think it brings a lot of excitement, a lot of colour into the game,” said Singh. “It’s for a great cause so it brings in all the communities together … it doesn’t soften the rivalry, but it brings all the people together, all the communities together – but the game is played with fierce competition.”

Next door to the SCG, in the less rowdy Allianz Stadium, the McGrath Foundation held its Jane McGrath High Tea, where fairy bread T-shirts and plastic cups of beer were traded for high fashion and cocktails.

At the high tea were three friends from Warrandyte, Victoria – Katie Taubert, Nicole Huseby and Sandra Mills – who between them have raised more than $120,000 for the foundation. They travelled to Sydney to celebrate their successes after spending a year planning their outfits.

“I made the earrings, the necklaces to match, everything,” said Mills. “It’s like a reward for us for raising money for the McGrath Foundation. We raise a lot of money just the three of us, no committees, we just jump in when we can.”

The cause is personal for Huseby, who said she didn’t know about the charity before she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now she “spruiks it like a butcher”.

The trio run sausage sizzles, collect cans for recycling deposits, organise pub meat raffles and talk to locals about how different cancers affect their lives.

“We make people smile – and smiling is the best thing.”