DARREN MONCRIEFF
Friday 3 February 2012
AS rugby league fans descend on the Gold Coast this weekend for the third instalment of the NRL's All Stars match, spare a thought for AFL fans who last saw their version of the pre-season exhibition game in 2009.
The code that first brought the concept to life, first in 1983, then in 1994, and biennially from 2003, Australian Football fans will have waited for four years until the seventh such match will be played. That's because, according to its fixed schedule for such events, the next AFL Indigenous All Stars match won't be played until February in 2013.
The last AFL Indigenous All-Stars match was to be played in February last year in Darwin. But heavier than usual seasonal rains in the Top End capital leading up to the match forced the league to move the game to Alice Springs' Trager Park.
However, Cyclone Yasi, which was wreaking havoc in Queensland, brought across similar rainfall to Central Australia during the week.
Much to the disappointment of fans, and the Indigenous players who had regathered in Alice Springs, the game, which was to be against Richmond, was abandoned at the 11th hour.
Hopes that the exhibition match would be played the following year, that is, in February 2012, were dashed by the AFL shortly after.
"Our recent plan has been to play the match every second year, so the next match was scheduled for 2013," an AFL spokeman said at the time.
Having contingency plans -- that is, having AFL-standard ovals in nearby regions or different States 'on call' --- were cost-prohibitive.
"It is a huge cost factor to move a game on one or two days' notice, with things such as flights, broadcaster commitments, etcetera," the spokesman said.
"The want is always to play the game where possible at a venue. The Darwin game was only moved to Alice Springs because we knew so far out that TIO Stadium was unplayable (because of the rains), and there were significant costs in moving that game that the AFL absorbed."
Since 1994, Darwin has hosted these matches, featuring an All-Indigenous team of players, originally from State leagues across the country and then from every AFL club against any one of the AFL's clubs.
The first match, in 1983, was played in Mildura but is not apparent whether it is officially recognised by the AFL.
That game, against Richmond which had just won the previous season's VFL premiership, featured Aboriginal players from the three dominant football States, WA, SA and Victoria, and from the Northern Territory. The Aboriginal team was captained by WA legend, Stephen Michael.
A plan to have such a team play as a regular end-of-season exhibition match never eventuated, as were plans to play the SANFL's 1984 premiership team.
It wasn't until controversy in the AFL in 1993, from which that now famous photo of St Kilda's Nicky Winmar was taken, that forced the AFL and its clubs to act.
The following pre-season, Collingwood was defeated by an Aboriginal side captained by the great Michael McLean in Darwin.
Plans for an annual match never bore fruit and it wasn't until 2000-2001 that talks had begun to bring the concept match back to life, talks that had engaged with the now-defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), chaired at the time by Geoff Clark.
Carlton had agreed to become the Aboriginal team's new opponent for a 2002 game, in Darwin, but resurfacing of TIO Stadium had taken longer than expected and the game was pushed back until the 2003 pre-season, where it was played in front of more than 17,000 spectators.
The Northern Territory capital has become regarded as the game's 'spiritual home' with matches played there in 2003, 2005 (pictured above), 2007 and 2009. But there have been growing calls to have the game moved.
Ironically, Alice Springs had been pencilled in for an All-Stars match in 2013.
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Last Modified on 03/02/2012 13:28