McDonald-Tipungwuti details his experiences growing up in Melbourne.
Moving from the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne at the age of 16 was no easy task for Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. The AFL star opens up about his tough transition into the Victorian lifestyle.
Essendon
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Before Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti met his adopted mother, Jane McDonald, the Tiwi native had “no direction and no guidance” and believed there was “no way out” of his troubled ways. However, thanks to the extraordinary good will of McDonald, who brought him to Melbourne and brought the then teenager into her home, the man affectionately known as “Tippa” went from a 16-year-old with the intelligence of a grade one student to a player for the Essendon Football Club.
HM: You stayed in Victoria and started at Chairo (Christian School).
JM: We had to get into Chairo first. I rang Rob Bray, who was the principal at Chairo. Rob said they weren’t a sporting school, so it couldn’t be a scholarship. He had to come to learn, and he wasn’t sure that was going to work because he didn’t speak English.
AMT: I had my first interview on the phone, and I just said to Rob, “I just want an education. I’m not going to come down for football, an education is what I want”. From that point we had a few meetings, and Mum went back to have a chat to him.
JM: It was going to be too hard, basically. They did tests to see where he’d fit in the school, and he was at early grade one standard.
HM: As a 16-year-old?
AMT: Yeah.
HM: Ten odd years behind?
JM: Yes. Rob walked in the door, and I knew straight away that he was going to say no to staying. I said, “Rob, I’m bringing Anthony down as part of my family, my other four kids have gone to school here with your kids. I know this is the place that he needs to be”. Rob looked at me and said, “You do know I was going to say no”. He looked at me and said, “Okay. You’ve convinced me”. I said, “I promise, if it doesn’t work in six months, we’ll looks elsewhere”. All the staff at school wanted him there from the time he walked in that door. They accepted him in. It was a huge result.
AMT: We laughed and I said “I will have to wear shoes, won’t I?”
HM: How was your first day?
AMT: My first day I went to school I had a little rat tail. You weren’t allowed to have anything that set you apart from everything else, so Mr. King said to me, “You know you can’t have that hairstyle”. It was the first time I got in trouble. The first minute or so of day one. But if I wanted to be a part of the school, I needed to look the part.
HM: How was your English at this point?
AMT: I couldn’t understand a lot of what was being said, so people had to repeat themselves a lot for me. But I didn’t want them to, so I stayed silent a lot.
HM: As a sixteen-year-old. What class do you go in to?
AMT: I had 9/10 BAT, which was business and technology. It was for the kids that had to learn differently.
HM: Did you find it manageable?
AMT: Most of the kids in the class had learning disabilities. I’d be taken out of class to go to Mrs Lorraine Lodge, who would take me through a one-on-one lesson with her. That was for two periods a day and it was the only time I got out of class to try and better my standard. She worked very hard to get me to where I ended up. It was a lot of work, basic stuff like going through your alphabets, maths, English.
HM: You started at the very beginning by the sound of it?
AMT: There was a lot of repetitive stuff, and if I got something wrong, I’d have to start over. I would work for four hours a night at home. I knew basically nothing and I was 16.
JM: At home we tried to get him from grade one, to grade five, and at school they’d try and get him into grade six and grade seven. That’s how we were trying to make it work.
HM: Was it working?
AMT: No. I wasn’t learning much at all!
JM: He didn’t come on the way Lorraine thought he would. She came to me and said, “I think there is a mental problem with him”. The school paid for him to be tested, and through that testing we found out that he had foetal alcohol syndrome.
HM: Physical and or mental damage in a child due to alcohol exposure in the womb?
AMT: Yes. That’s why I found it so difficult to learn. I wasn’t dumb, I just had to be taught a different way.
JM: It took him 18 months to get to lower grade 5 standard, and 18 months later he had finished year 11. That’s how bright he is!
HM: With foetal alcohol syndrome, it affects your learning, so once you know that you’ve got it, how do you get around that and learn appropriately?
AMT: In my case, it attacked my short term memory loss. Every other part of my brain is fine, it’s just when I was developing in mums’ stomach, the alcohol got through to that part of my brain around short term memory. Once we worked that out, it was about learning in ways to help me remember.
JM: When he first came down, sometimes I’d think that he was deliberately disobeying me. I’d say, right, you need to do this and be here at this time, and he wouldn’t turn up. Short term memory loss! He’d be at school, ring me and say, “Where are you mum?”. “I’m waiting at the mechanics for you like I told you I would be!”
HM: Do you have any difficulty learning now?
AMT: I’m a visual learner. I learn by seeing things.
HM: Can you read a book now?
AMT: I can read the words, but not fully comprehend them. I can’t read for a long time.
HM: What about team meetings?
AMT: I’m getting better now. Before I would sit there, say “yep, I understand, I can do it” but had no idea what they were talking about!
HM: I wonder how many people don’t have the love, care, support, and the right people who ask the right questions to get to the heart of the problem, and just get thrown into the wrong basket in life.
AMT: Without mum I would have — so I guess heaps.
HM: It’s bloody sad. And you are bloody fortunate. You played footy in Tiwi barefooted, with coke bottles as footballs. In 2011, you’re hoping to be picked up in the draft. Why were you overlooked?
AMT: Fitness and diet and not being ready. My body doesn’t process sugar well, and I didn’t realise it back then. I was eating all the carbs they were telling me to eat and my body couldn’t process them. I was just getting bigger, and bigger, and I didn’t understand why.
HM: You were overlooked in 2012 overlooked again. You thought you might have been drafted then?
AMT: Yes. I was working at the council in my last year when I was playing for Gippsland, and it was the Monday before the Rookie Draft. I had a phone call from a recruiter. “Are you back on the Tiwi Islands?” And I said, “No. I’m down in Gippsland”. He said, “Oh no! That’s bad news — we were told you’d gone back home — we’ve committed to take another player!”
HM: 2013, the following year, you were training with Casey, working for the Morwell Council as a gardener. Getting up at 5am, driving to work, training with Casey, getting home at 9 o’clock, eat, sleep, repeat. Merv Keane came to your house at and tested you on a few things in the backyard of the McDonald’s house. What happened?
AMT: We did some work, ground balls, and just a few things to see where I was at with my injury. He said, “We’ve got a standalone team with Essendon, at Bendigo, and we really want you to come play with us”.
HM: That’s a long way from Gippsland!
AMT: Yep. I had a chat with mum about how we could make it work, and I thought it was a good opportunity to go and try something new. It all started from there. Moving from the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne was a big adjustment, but Gippsland to Melbourne felt bigger!
HM: Where did you move to?
JM: Oak Park, paying rent, while holding onto the house at Gippsland. We still had the house in Gippsland, so every Thursday night we’d pack up from here, go down to Gippsland where he’d work on Friday with me and the sports department, and we’d have to get back here at five o’clock for training that night.
HM: Seriously? You were living here during the week, then you’d drive to Drouin for two and a half hours on a Thursday night, wake up at 5am, work at the school doing teacher’s aide, finish at 3pm, jump in the car and arrive at training by?
AMT: I had to be there by 5. I’d always only just make it. Then play on the weekend.
JM: But sometimes we’d have to go home, because we still had to do the gardens, and mow the lawns, keep the house. Most weekends we’d be back before or after footy.
HM: Jane are you back in Gippsland now?
JM: No. I’m in Gisborne, because Anthony still isn’t really ready to live by himself yet.
HM: Why are you not ready to live by yourself yet?
AMT: I guess I haven’t really settled in my life yet. I’m still learning about so much. I don’t think I would cope too well by myself yet.
HM: In what ways?
AMT: Ummm … I’d miss Mum. It sounds a little simple, but I’m not too good with how things really work still. I need someone who helps me with understanding the do’s and don’ts of how it all works. You’ve got bills to pay, you need to know how to pay them. I’ve never been exposed to any of that, and am daunted by it all. I’m still learning.
HM: You still need a guiding light?
AMT: I need that guidance from mum. Hopefully one day I will be able to.
HM: If you were living by yourself would you eat terribly?
AMT: (laughs) Yes! Too much, and all the wrong things. I’d be able to get to training, but it’s more the cooking, washing, paying bills. Things would head off the rails very quickly by myself I think and all the wins we have had would come undone.
HM: OK. Back to footy. VFL for 2013 and 14 — still no selection in the draft. Nor in the 2015 national draft. Were you thinking at any stage of giving it up?
AMT: It was actually my last year of VFL, 2014, when I was overlooked in the draft. I said to Mum, “I’m done. It’s not going to happen, I want to go and try something new”. Playing rugby was my other option. I said to Mum, “I’m not doing the footy again — that was my chance — I’m done with it all”.
HM: Why didn’t you give it up?
AMT: All because of a meeting with Mal Michael who was my coach at Aberfeldie. That was where I played when I wasn’t playing VFL. I only played the one game there. When we met he said, “If you look in the mirror and see a person that can make it, you can do it. If you think that the person can’t do it, you will be right too”. I looked in the mirror and asked myself: “Is the person you are looking at good enough to play AFL football?” I thought I was good enough and the guy in the mirror agreed with me.
HM: So what changed?
AMT: I asked Mum to coach me during the pre-season, get me fit, get my running right. We would give it 110 per cent together.
HM: Had you had any coaching experience Jane?
JM: That’s what I did at school. I’m not a teacher, but I’d coached since I was 12 years old. I’ve won state championships as a coach of netball. But I told him “when I’m doing it, I’m your coach, not your mum! You will have to listen to me — and do what I tell you”.
HM: All running?
AMT: Almost all running, a bit of ball work, but more just long-distance running. We’d train whenever we could. I got really fit, mum got me running long distance times I hadn’t been able to before, and I was feeling OK again. Adrian Dodoro at the Bombers told me I had to be able to run a 2km trial under 7 minutes.
HM: Who did you speak to?
AMT: Adrian Dodoro. He wanted me to do the 2km in under 7 minutes? My best then was 7 minutes 40 seconds. I said I couldn’t do it. 2km — I’m never going to reach that.
HM: How long did he give you to get under 7 minutes?
AMT: A couple of weeks. I was running close to eight minutes around here, and I said to mum, “That’s it. I’m done — there’s no way!” I was ready to pull the pin again.
J M: And I said, we’re not done. We’re not done until the draft. We spoke to Rob Forster-Knight at the club about getting some help to break 7 minutes.
AMT: We said to him, “I just ran a 2km and couldn’t get near the time needed. Is there anyone that can help me run it in under seven minutes?” He led us to Paul Turk. He was critical. He taught me to run in a rhythm. Eventually, I ran the 2km in 6 minutes 58 seconds. He said, “You’re done. I’ll take this back to Adrian and say that you’ve done it in sub seven”. I rang mum. I was pretty happy.
JM: I was pretty proud of you. I said to Anthony, “You go back to John (Worsfold) and tell him that you really want this. Don’t let him be in any doubt”. I was worried John didn’t think he was totally committed.
AMT: Tiwi players are very talented footballers, but many of us don’t have as much drive as others. Or don’t have the person to drive them.
HM: Why do you feel that?
AMT: Maybe we are not as driven. For me, I could have been the same. Mum wanted John to know I was driven and I would do anything. I’m glad I met with John and told him I was all in.
HM: When you went to John and told him that, what did he say?
AMT: He said, “I’ll go and talk to some people, but just keep working hard on your training”.
JM: He talked to Skippy (Hayden Skipworth) as Skippy had worked with him through the VFL. And Skippy was the one that said the club should give him a go.
HM: Hayden was a huge part of you being picked up wasn’t he?
AMT: From the first day I arrived at Essendon, he was the person that helped me with my footy, taught me the structures. He’d write it down and say to me, “Take it home to mum and tell her what you’ve learnt”.
JM: And that was over, and over, and over, because Skippy had known right from the start that he had a learning disability.
AMT: Then the call came the day before the 2015 rookie draft, I was working, trying to explain what the AFL was to some Muslim kids. I had a phone call from Adrian saying, “Come to my office after you finish work. I want to have a chat to you”. I rang mum and said, “Adrian wants me to go in after work”.
HM: Were you nervous?
AMT: Terrified. I thought it was going to be bad news. I expected the worst, because that was going to be an easier way of dealing with it if it happened.
HM: And what happened?
AMT: I went into his office, and I saw all the cameras and I knew he was going to give me the good news.
HM: That he would take you in the rookie draft?
AMT: Yep. He said he would give me a chance. He wasn’t going to abandon me. I was going to join Essendon’s family. From that point I just knew I would be OK.
HM: What did John say to you the first day of training?
AMT: He said “There’s one spot for a rookie to get on to the main list. If you want it, it’s there, if you don’t, that’s fine”. I knew I had to work hard for it, but I wanted it, and I was going to make sure I got it.
HM: What has footy given you?
AMT: The ability to give back. I will always be the same person, and I’ll never forget how little some kids have in terms of confidence, love, and opportunity. I love helping and giving back to the kids, and make time for the young kids that we go and visit. That’s what I didn’t really have growing up, that person giving me the confidence. Giving back to the kids, that’s the most important thing for me. I didn’t want to change because I was an AFL player, I wanted kids to feel like they could follow their dreams and achieve what they wanted to achieve. I was lucky I found someone who would allow me to follow mine. If I didn’t, I have no idea what I’d be doing, but it wouldn’t be productive, and it wouldn’t be positive.
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