Meet: Mel & Em.

How We Met (and Never Looked Back)

We often say our story began in the most cricket-obsessed place on the planet: India, 2009. Emma was leading international development programs with Red Dust Role Models—using sport and sporting role models as tools for health promotion in remote and underserved communities. So when a program to India came up, it made perfect sense that cricket would be front and centre. And naturally, we needed a cricketer. A proper one.

Enter Mel Jones. Former Australian cricketer, World Cup winner, boundary-pushing commentator, and all-round good human. We were introduced through mutual contacts, and before we knew it, we were boarding planes, tuk-tuks, and rickety buses across India, sharing stories, samosas, and a mutual disbelief at the state of some hotel bathrooms.

That trip was the start of something more than just a working relationship. We connected through shared values: a belief in sport as a vehicle for positive change, a love of storytelling, and a deep determination to challenge the status quo—especially in cricket. We became friends, fast. The kind of friends who could finish each other’s sentences… or at least jump in when the other forgets what point they were making mid-presentation.

Over the years, we stayed in each other's corner, championing each other's work, projects, and occasional hair-brained ideas. And eventually, one of those ideas stuck.

In 2021, we officially registered It’s Game On—a sport consultancy firm and production company dedicated to telling the untold and unique stories of women in sport. We wanted to amplify voices that had been sidelined, to bring colour and context to women’s experiences in the sporting world, and to do it in a way that was bold, creative, and unapologetically ambitious.

Then, COVID hit. Our first documentary was postponed, and like many, we found ourselves in a bit of a holding pattern. Until a single message changed everything.

In August 2021, a young woman in Afghanistan texted Mel. Her message was simple and powerful: a plea for help. Mel called Emma that same day with what might be described as “a small favour” that quickly became a life-defining mission. That favour set us on a path we could never have predicted, one that led to the development of Pitch Our Future—an initiative born out of urgency, empathy, and belief in the power of sport to unite, heal, and uplift.

Our business is built on friendship, trust, and an unshakeable desire to create meaningful impact. We don’t take ourselves too seriously (we’re the first to laugh at our own bad jokes and production mishaps), but we’re serious about what we do. We know the system can—and must—be better. And we know that stories, especially those that have been ignored or overlooked, are the key to unlocking that change.

It started with a trip, a laugh, and a shared vision. It’s Game On.