DARREN MONCRIEFF
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
STATE and Territory squads are being finalised ahead of a first for Indigenous football.
The inaugural AFL Under-15 National Indigenous Championships will be played on the Gold Coast later this month with six teams and up to 150 junior footballers playing from across Australia representing every State and Territory.
Queensland will soon finalise its squad while South Australia is expected to do the same next week.
Along with those two States, Northern Territory and Western Australia will field stand-alone teams while NSW and ACT will combine to make one team as will Victoria and Tasmania.
Each team will have a 25-strong playing list.
The best-performed two teams will play the curtain-raiser to the Gold Coast-Hawthorn round 24 match at Metricon Stadium.
And the best-performed 25 players across the championships will be chosen for the 2011 Flying Boomerangs team which will play in Fiji in December.
Queensland will choose its 25 players from 41 youngsters who are this week attending a player selection camp in Brisbane. The team will be coached by former Brisbane Lion, Darryl White.
The initial South Australian squad was picked earlier this month. The team will be coached by one-time Adelaide Crow, and West Adelaide and Central District player, Eddie Hocking.
Final selection, however, is not all about football prowess. Players will be chosen on leadership qualities, school attendance, community involvement and, lastly, football ability.
The inaugural championships are an extension of the annual AFL KickStart camps, which has a maximum 50 youngsters attending.
The AFL's national community engagement manager, Jason Mifsud, said the KickStart program will continue to use Australian football as a vehicle for education, employment, health and participation outcomes for Indigenous people
"KickStart's expansion will enable us to grow the pool of talented Indigenous footballers, and equally important, it will further expand our engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and enable us to continually deliver broader social value," Mifsud said.
"The championships will also provide further development opportunities for other parts of the football industry such as umpiring, coaching and administration with local Indigenous people engaged in these leadership positions for each team.
"Holding the championships on the Gold Coast is also a very significant engagement opportunity for us. With some 60,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the South East Queensland region, the feedback and support from the local community has already been excellent."
During the championships participants will meet Indigenous AFL players and engage in leadership seminars.
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Last Modified on 17/08/2011 14:18