DARREN MONCRIEFF
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Updated: August 31, 2011
THE pathway to the AFL for Indigenous young men will broaden when the first national Indigenous championships begin on the Gold Coast tomorrow.
The four-day championships will be played at powerhouse QAFL club Southport's home ground, with the best-performed teams to play in a 'grand final' as a curtain-raiser to the Gold Coast-v-Hawthorn match at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.
From here, players will vie for selection for the Flying Boomerangs squad which will play footy in the Oceania championships in Fiji in December.
The West Australian team, which was named at a jumper presentation in Perth late yesterday, was picked from eight of the nine WAFL clubs and their development zones.
They will be coached by one-time AFL No.1 draft pick, 2002 Brisbane Lions premiership player and former Fremantle star, Des Headland.
WA will wear a special Indigenous State jumper (pictured) designed by Aboriginal artist Richard Walley, who has designed many of the WAFL's NAIDOC Week jumpers.
WA assistant coach, Trevor Stack, yesterday said that selection process was the way forward for tournaments such as this.
"I have always been an advocate of that," he said.
"It's a good concept all round. It's a very professional set-up so it's good for their development.
"The boys will receive talks from AFL players over there and they will get an idea of the leadership programs on offer; that's probably the ticket to it, that these boys can play football but learning these lessons is just as important."
The WA team's first game will be against South Australia.
Geoff Winmar, from Quairading Football Club, and Noel Johnstone, from East Fremantle, will be the WA side's trainers.
The WA side had their final training session yesterday afternoon before boarding their flight from Perth to the Gold Coast earlier this morning.
Eight of the nine WAFL clubs were represented in the WA team. South Fremantle has the most with five, Swan Districts, Subiaco and Claremont provide four each, East Fremantle and Perth has two and East Perth and Peel Thunder have one player each. Perth has two players listed as emergencies.
Queensland's squad was finalised last week. The Sunshine State's team has a strong representation from the south-east where previously its teams traditionally had a strong presence from the far north.
The SA team tuned up for the championships with a hit-out against an under-17s team in Adelaide last Saturday before final selection was made yesterday.
SA's team has been developed via the SANFL's Aboriginal Pathways To Excellence Program.
The NSW/ACT team has just nine of its players from the traditionally strong Riverina region. Encouragingly, there are players from Sydney, Newcastle, the Illawarra region and the North Coast.
Victoria and Tasmania have combined to form one team. The majority of the Victorian team members are from the country. There are three Tasmanians in the side.
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Last Modified on 31/08/2011 01:08