AFL turning Indigenous dreamtime to big time

Updated May 22, 2009 10:45:00

Audio: Aboriginal footballers celebrated (AM)

Today there are more Aboriginal football players in the AFL than ever before and the sport's administrators are hoping it's a trend that will increase, especially with two new teams in New South Wales and Queensland.

Indigenous footballers command elite salaries, huge attention and provide the game with some of its most spectacular moments.

In 1977 Indigenous footballers made up just 0.6 per cent of the competition's playing list.

Today they make up 11 per cent of the AFL's list, with 82 players across 16 clubs.

The manager of the AFL's Indigenous programs, Jason Mifsud, says the immediate target is to grow the list to 100 players.

"We think that's really achievable," he said.

"We're seeing some great work happening in communities right across the country now in terms of that engagement and transition to our talent programs in the AFL system."

Enigmatic Richmond midfielder Richard Tambling grew up in Fifty Mile Creek near Darwin.

"I think the speed and just the skill that's involved in footy, being able to sit on someone and take a massive grab, and kick goals and a lot of scores and stuff like that, just the excitement of it, I think, had me from day one," he said.

Tambling played school football and eventually made it to the state team. It was only when he was playing for the Northern Territory in a national competition that AFL scouts first spotted him.

He says football drove him to achieve things he never could have imagined.

"I think you'll see most Aboriginal and Indigenous communities around Australia, footy's basically the number one thing," he said.

And it's just an amazing driving force behind it. That's why school attendance - like Clontarf Academy, where it's based around footy - have picked up 10-fold."

Proud of it

The pioneers of modern day Indigenous football were players like Jack Johnson, Polly Farmer, Maurice Rioli, Che Cockatoo Collins and Nicky Winmar.

A defining moment came in 1993, when Nicky Winmar's match-winning performance for St Kilda against Collingwood drew racist taunts from the Magpie cheer squad.

Facing the crowd after the match, Winmar lifted his jumper and pointed to his black skin saying "I'm proud to be black".

Essendon star Patrick Ryder was only six years old at the time. On Saturday night he will be part of the annual Dreamtime at the 'G match against Richmond.

"Looking back on it now, it was a turning point, in the way he stood up and said that, 'we're here, and we're going to stay here'," he said.

"So, as Aboriginal players, footy is like a lifeline there for us. So, without footy, I wouldn't know what I'd be doing.

"Most of us aren't going to be boys, I didn't really do the schooling to get that sort of stuff. Footy is just a way that we can get out in life and make something of ourselves."

Topics: australian-football-league, community-and-society, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, sport, essendon-3040, australia, vic, richmond-3121

First posted May 22, 2009 10:00:00