All systems go for Gold Coast Football ClubTHE AFL Commission's granting a licence to bid team GC17 for a new club on the Gold Coast will present greater opportunities for Indigenous footballers, says the man at the frontline of football's grassroots development.
Jason Mifsud, AFL Foundation boss, last night said the number of Indigenous footballers coming in to the AFL will have increased significantly by the time the fledgling Gold Coast Football Club enters the league in 2011, and that the new team may well have a fair portion of Indigenous footballers in its inaugural squad.
The AFL Commission on Tuesday granted the GCFC a provisional licence to become the AFL's 17th team in 2011. The club will first play in the Victoria-based TAC Cup (under-18s) this year and in the Victorian Football League in 2010 before moving into the big league a year later.
"The new club will provide a team for up to 40 new players in the competition and, given the influx of Indigenous footballers in the AFL in recent times, it would be fair to suggest a fair percentage of them will be Indigenous," Mifsud said.
Additionally, the Northern Territory side that will compete in the Queensland Australian Football League competition this year will provide another avenue for Indigenous footballers, Mifsud said.
"The NT Thunder in the QAFL will continue to expose talent from the Top End and create another pathway for our brothers," he said. "Ten per cent of all players drafted (at last year's drafts) were Indigenous and we have 11 per cent of all AFL players this year who are Indigenous."
A team full of Murris: Will it happen?THE time will come when an AFL team will be stacked with Murris and they won't necessarily have to move too far from home to play football at the highest level.
It seems far-fetched right now, but after the AFL Commission on Tuesday granted a licence to the Gold Coast Football Club to become the league's 17th team, that may well become reality.
Jason Mifsud, a man with extensive experience in Indigenous football, said football's investment in Queensland's far north would eventually pay dividends. Rex Liddy, from Far North Queensland, a cousin of rugby league star Matt Bowen, is in the GCFC's TAC Cup side. He is but one of several graduates from the region of the highly successful Cape York Football Academy.
"It's inevitable," Mifsud said of an AFL team with a lot of Murris. "The young players that are coming through the program Rick Hanlon runs up at Cape York is outstanding. We had a number of boys in the Flying Boomerang side (which recently played in Papua New Guinea) who are from the Cape and the Torres Strait Islands. Some of the boys are incredibly athletic and talented and are being fine-tuned to football.
"One young fella from Lockhart River, Kieran Johnson, should move into the under-16s (national championships) from where two boys have already gone. Some would be genuine Gold Coast candidates.
"They are investments and football will be making a return on that investment in three of four years. This new team on the Gold Coast will be local heroes for locals to barrack for and aspire to."
DARREN MONCRIEFF
Darren@AboriginalFootball.com.au
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Last Modified on 02/04/2009 03:36