'It scares me': The taboo topic two Central West clubs are tackling

The Roos have teamed up with other clubs at times to promote certain charities or raise awareness of an issue, so when the chance to align with City this weekend came along, they jumped at it.

On Saturday, Orange City and the Roos will play for the inaugural Lifeline Shield of Hope.

The shield is the brainchild of City third grade player Darren Wooding, who is a Lifeline volunteer.

"Our club has been wanting to do something along this line for a few years now and now we've actually taken the leap and reached out the Lifeline and Dubbo Roos to see if we could make it happen and it's just all fallen into place this year," he said.

Wooding said youth mental health and suicide were front and centre for him with both his children now young adults in addition to coaching many young players at City down the years.

"I've got a son and a daughter in their early twenties so it scares me personally," he said.

"I always talk to my kids about it and I actually volunteer for Lifeline as well.

"It's a vital cause. We need to just have that conversation and we need to talk about it so it's not a scary thing.

"You're not in trouble, you don't have to be scared to call Lifeline if you are doing it tough. That's why they're there.

"It's a shield of hope. We hope one day suicide will be a thing of the past."

Wooding approached the Roos at the start of the season, and the Dubbo club's president Gerald Webster was quick to say yes.

"We haven't had an alignment with City in the past for something like that. We have with a few of the other clubs," Webster said.

"It was good for them to put the proposal to us and we're more than happy to support it.

"Suicide prevention is a big, big thing for our club and obviously will continue to be going forward so it's good to be onboard."

Lifeline will have a presence at Pride Park on Saturday and the hope is the event will encourage people to talk openly about mental health and break the taboo.

"It's about awareness and it's about talking, about getting it out where it's not stigmatised so much," Wooding said.

"It's something we feel is important because we've got a lot of young boys and girls who statistically, it's one of the highest rates of death in young people which is very sad.

"So we want to make it easier to talk about and show we're there to support them."

The shield adds extra motivation to what should be a keenly contested first grade fixture.

After five rounds in a competitive Blowes Clothing Cup, the Roos are fourth on the ladder and just two points ahead of City.