AFL Queensland officials are confident of fielding at least six teams to play in an Indigenous junior football carnival in Lismore in April, after which an 'All Stars' side will be picked for the South-East Queensland country championships at Ballina the following month.
The Under-14/15 years Lismore carnival has been set down for either April 13 or 20 and will be played at Oakes and Mortimer ovals.
However, organisers face a challenge. They will draw their playing stocks from Indigenous youngsters whose first game of choice is not AFL footy.
Despite this, AFL Queensland's regional manager (Northern Rivers), Brent Kelly, said he was confident of getting the numbers.
"We're hoping that we can get 200-plus Indigenous boys, and girls for girls teams, for the carnival," he said. "We're extremely confident we can get that many with the amount of Indigenous people in the area.
"It will be a communities-based competition with kids from remote areas joining kids from Tweed to Grafton and once we have a rough estimate of the numbers everyone will get even game time."
The Indigenous All Stars team will comprise Under-14 boys and will play at Ballina in May.
"Just to make it clear, this is not a 'code conversion' attempt," Kelly said. "We're not concentrating on getting rugby league players playing AFL at the carnival. It's a chance for league players, softballers -- or whatever other sport is out there -- to have the opportunity for a day out of health and recreation."
The Ballina carnival will be the first time the SEQ country championships have been held outside its original area. Facilities at Ballina have received an upgrade over the past few weeks.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Last Modified on 24/06/2011 12:56