In 2020, aged just 23 years, Gus Cleary took his own life.  Three years later, his extended ‘family’ - which spans half of Victoria - is banding together and fuelled by Gus’ memory, dragging the Black Dog that took him into the spotlight, creating a legacy aimed at ensuring no one else in the family – or anyone around them – becomes a victim.

DEPRESSION, anxiety, suicide.

Every day, the media tells us they’re not taboo words or subjects.

Every day, we’re fed statistics – a fatality rate more than double the national road toll, 75 per cent of those who take their own lives are male.

Despite all that, the statistics are only getting higher.

But Gus Cleary was not a statistic.

He was the son of Linda and the late Michael, stepson of Andrew, brother of Zack, friend of Prue and grandson, nephew and cousin to countless Clearys, Kelletts and Clodes.

He grew up surrounded by family in Casterton.

Playing basketball and football right through his junior years here, Gus headed to Ballarat after being chosen in the Ballarat Rebels’ talent squad; he boarded at Clarendon College, completing Year 12 and headed to university in Melbourne.

A country boy at heart, Gus looked for and found a home club at Redan, where his “genuine good fella” personality found him easily settling into the Lions’ family and - when undecided about his future, career-wise - a new job, with the help of his Lions teammates.

His Rebels football pathway saw him join the North Ballarat Roosters in the VFL, but in 2018 when the Roosters left the VFL, Gus was chased and successfully recruited by his first home club, returning to the Cats’ senior line-up where he made an impression on the field from day one, but returned to Redan during the week, for work and his second home.

Around 18 months later, Linda knew her son was going through a difficult time.

She knew he was in a fragile state of mind.

She knew, as a mother, it was her responsibility to ‘fix it’.

After spending five weeks, virtually at his side, trying many options to get him in a better state of mind and with a plan in place for Christmas, Linda returned home to let Gus have some space.

“I was only gone ... just gone and it happened,” Linda said, this week.

“I hid for a long time afterwards, because I kept thinking, ‘how could I let this happen to my son?’.

“But it can be so hard to figure out ... we all struggle with mental health at some stage or know someone who does and if we had all the answers - how, why - Gus would still be with us.”

Gus was brought home to Casterton to be laid to rest and after his funeral, his two ‘home clubs’ determined they would do everything they could, to not lose another teammate in the future, or have the rest of the ‘family’ suffer the grief of that loss.

In 2021, Casterton Sandford Football Netball Club and the Redan Lions Football Club took to the centre of Island Park 1 before a Cats’ home game, for a minute’s silence for Gus and that year, the first Gus Cleary Memorial T21 Cricket Match was played and several thousand dollars raised for mental health network ‘Headspace’.

A group of friends also put their heads together in the ‘Great Mullet Challenge’, adding to the mental health fundraising kitty and on Saturday night, another $1400 was raised for the cause when one of Linda’s original artworks, featuring the slogan ‘Judge Me When You’re Perfect’, went under the hammer and was snatched up by the Redan boys, to be hung in their clubrooms.

Cats’ coach, Kane Forbes said gathering with the Redan boys initially and under such “bad circumstances” had been difficult, however that wider friendship between the clubs and created by Gus, had extended to a great circle of support, understanding and knowledge, for both sides’ members.

“Poor mental health and suicide is a massive problem among men nationwide, it’s not just isolated to us, but the advantage we have, being in a small club, a small country town, everyone is close and we’re always in close quarters, so it’s easier to say, hey I’m struggling or I’ve had a shit day and the awareness is going from strength to strength,” Kane said.

“We talk about it, everyone knows that within our club and certainly within the Redan club and between the clubs, there’s an inner sanctum that will be confidential, where there’s an avenue of support and you can say anything and know it will be kept in confidence.

“We’d all do anything to be able to say ‘are you okay?’ and have Gus back and we’re certainly all really conscious now of doing that ... it’s out there, we talk about it, we workshop it, we play that cricket match, so nobody has to hide.

“We pick up on people’s mannerisms, maybe they’ve had a bad day and taking two minutes to say ‘this is not right’ is so important.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as telling them you’ve had a bad day ... giving them the opportunity to say ‘me too’.

“We support each other as best we can in that and there are times when we have no idea how to deal with a situation ... that’s when the wider group or those resources that we’re always in contact with, steps up.”

And while the boys are there to have fun, have a laugh, remember their mate and get the Black Dog out in the open, there is the ‘serious’ business of cricket at hand.

“Yeah, Redan won this year, they got away to a big start, so it’s one-all on the books now.”