Football fanatics get their kicks

By Justin Robertson
TIWI Islander Jack Williams eats and breathes football.
On a map, Tiwi Island is as far north Australia as you can go – 80km from Darwin – and that’s where you’ll find Williams with his mates kicking the footy for an entire day in the park, only to head home when the day’s light has expired.
The Island is comprised of two parts – Bathurst and Melville Island – and home to AFL footballers Cyril Rioli and Austin Wonaeamirri.
Just to give you an idea of how passionate Tiwi Islanders are about their football, 900 people play the sport from a total population of 2600 – the size of a country town.
For the past three months, four students from the Northern Territory have been taking part in an exchange program at Hallam Senior College in the hope that they will be part of the Hallam Australian Rules Academy Program, a scheme that has been partnered with Dandenong Southern Stingrays since 2006.
For Williams, the transition from remote Island to big metropolis has been a smooth change for the Northern Territorian.
“Yeah, I miss home a little bit, but I have settled in now being in a bigger city,” he said.
“I’m really enjoying the program so far and I hope to one day play AFL footy.”
Nathan Fejo, 16, (Croker Island) Nathan Woodley, 15, (Darwin) Sean Emery, 15, (Palmerston) Jack Williams, 16, (Tiwi Island) will spend the next year at Hallam College.
They will conduct football clinics at various primary schools around Victoria, honing their skills and will travel to Queensland to play against State champions Helensvale College.
Ben McGee, director of Hallam Australian Rules Academy program, said the four boys were studying to ultimately become junior coaches.
While their time at Hallam College only equates to one subject per week, the boys are busy studying for a further five subjects – maths, science, English to name a few – through the Victorian Education Learning Standard.
“Every coach in Victoria has to have a level-one coach’s certificate – junior, intermediate or senior – to have the ability to instruct,” McGee said.
“Apart from football, they will also run an athletics carnival day later on in the year.”
On weekends when the boys are not at school studying, they are playing for Southern League club, St. Kilda City crafting their football skills to turn their dreams of one day playing AFL football into a reality.
“One of the major missions of our program is to get as many boys into one pool whereby Darren Flanigan from the Stingrays can view them,” McGee said.
“Exposing them to more football scouts is what we want to achieve and lot of the scouts are located in the southern states.”
Jack Williams has already created some interest among scouts and is heading back to the Northern Territory in a few weeks to try out for the TAC Cup team that will take part in the National championships later this month.
But for Fejo, who hails from Croker – an island with no more than 200 people, 200km north east of Darwin – it’s all about working towards his life-long ambition.
“To play AFL footy would be a dream.” Fejo said.
“I want to be the first person from Croker to make it into the AFL.”