Hawks rising star tells youngsters it all starts at school
IF STUDENTS at the Tiwi College Football Academy needed any more motivation to do well at school, Cyril Rioli jnr was there to provide some.
Less than 12 months after joining Hawthorn, Rioli, a Tiwi islander, became a premiership player after the Hawks caused a boilover when they rolled Geelong by 26 points in the AFL Grand Final; Rioli playing no small role in that match.
Rioli and the Hawthorn playing group last week visited the islands and were special guests at the academy. The 19-year-old first-year Hawk, a former student at Melbourne's Scotch College, related to the wide-eyed students the importance of education.
Karl Gundersen, whose family links are tied to the islands, is the academy's director. He said Rioli's experience was invaluable to the students.
"Cyril had a chat to them and he said one of the main reasons Hawthorn drafted him, aside from his footy, was because he could read and write; he had done the hard work in getting educated and his football took care of itself," Gundersen said.
"Now if we can get the guys here educated well, the footy side of things will take care of itself."
The academy opened in October and the 19 students have just ended Term 4, their first.
To mark the occasion, the Tiwis and a combined NTFL side played the first game on their new oval at Pikatarumoor. Hawthorn coach Allistair Clarkson umpired the match while Rioli and team-mate Jordan Lewis ran the water as the rest of the Hawks -- including star forward Lance Franklin -- watched on from the sidelines.
The academy's students come from the islands' three main centres: Nguiu, Milikapiti and Pirlangimpi, with two more joining from Ranku.
Unlike the academies on the mainland, however, the young Tiwis face several logistical issues just getting there. A missed bus or ferry ride could mean no school. And no school means no football. But there's also the island's cultural differences that must be bridged.
"We're bringing two, three very strong communities together and making them comfortable to learn together with all the cultural traditions that each group has," Gundersen said.
Given that footy is as much a way of life as anything else on the islands, Gundersen, a former player with South Fremantle in the WAFL, says he is expecting enrolments to increase for next term.
"Just going by my last visit to Nguiu, I think numbers will go through the roof," he said.
"For some of the kids, this is their only chance to play junior footy on a regular basis and in a structured competition. So in that sense it's not a hard sell to make."
Gundersen jumped at the chance to take on the role after having helped set up Clontarf's Palmerston academy, where he was director. The academy on the islands is close to his heart.
"My family are from the Tiwis; as a kid I grew up going backwards and forwards to the islands now I'm back to help my own people," Gundersen said.
"Just seeing the massive challenges my little brothers face on the islands, I want to try and turn that around.
"The main thing is attendance at school, that is 99 per cent of the program. We want our brothers to be in the classrooms learning and making a commitment to their studies, and football is a side part of that.
"In essence, it's about education and learning and inter-acting and participating in the non-Indigenous world, which the boys have to be comfortable with. If they want to play footy and take it further they have to mix and mingle with groups other than their own and be comfortable with that.
"There's so many young Indigenous leaders here that you can already identify and with a little guidance they can do great things for their own people. It's all about empowering them with education."
The academy has a six-week break and returns in late January. Those old enough, and good enough -- about half-a-dozen youngsters -- will play in the Tiwi Islands Football League.
A Bulldog of the '90s
KARL GUNDERSEN's football talents took him west to South Fremantle in 1993. He was a 15 when he made his league debut with St Mary's in the NTFL.
Gundersen played 30 league games and 'about 400 games in the reserves', meaning that he played more than he cared to remember in reserves than league over his five-year stay at the club.
He recalls 1997 as the best year there. That was the year Souths won the grand final over rivals East Fremantle, a result in doubt until late in the final quarter when Warren Campbell laid a match-winning tackle that resulted in a Bulldogs goal, the final margin.
Gundersen came ever so close to being in that team.
"I was an emergency," he said.
"I have mixed feeling for that game but just to be part of that year at the club, to be a part of that team with Warren Campbell, who I grew up with, and Dean Rioli, who I grew up with, that was very special."
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Friday, December 19, 2008
Last Modified on 19/12/2008 03:32