It’s time for the AFL to give back to the Territory by giving the NT its own team

Territory footballers have lit up the national game, wowing fans with skills that at times seem to defy physics. Give them a home team and it’ll only get even better, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

For every Daniel Rioli (pictured), Michael Long or Andrew McLeod, there’s another NT footballer whose career was stifled by the challenges of physical and cultural distance. Picture: Getty

TERRITORY footballers have lit up the national game, wowing fans with skills that at times seem to defy physics. Give them a home team and it’ll only get even better, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

WHICH Australian school has produced the best AFL footballers?

It’s been the subject of recent water-cooler debate as Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper lists the star alumni of various Victorian institutions.

But there’s a clear and unequivocal winner in this argument.

The school is long way from Melbourne. It sits on the side of the Stuart Highway about a kilometre out of Darwin’s CBD.

And in the past 40 years, St John’s College has produced six Norm Smith medals and 12 Premierships.

Students who’ve gone on to AFL fame include Maurice Rioli, Michael Long, Andrew McLeod, Nathan Buckley, Cyril Rioli, Daniel Rioli and Willie Rioli.

The school’s record is emblematic of the incredible contribution footballers from the Northern Territory have made to the AFL since Maurice Rioli burst onto the scene at Richmond in 1982.

Since then, Territory footballers have lit up the national game, wowing fans with skills that at times seem to defy physics. This has been sold as a great AFL success story.

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But for every Long and McLeod who has dazzled on the MCG, there’s another whose career was stifled by the challenges of physical and cultural distance.

Liam Jurrah, Austin Wonaeamirri, Relton Roberts and Troy Taylor are among those who chose to head home when their AFL careers had just begun.

There are many more who never made the journey in the first place.

Even the great Cyril Rioli called time on his stellar AFL career aged just 28, so he could return home to Darwin.

Most Australians would never have been to a remote Aboriginal community.

Those who have would have been confronted by what they witnessed.

Crowded housing, crumbling infrastructure and little in the way of economic activity.

But in each of those communities you’re almost certain to find a kid with a footy.

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Junior footy looks different in the Northern Territory. The bounces are many and the packs are few.

It’s almost a reminder of how the game was meant to be played.

A game that, unlike other codes, has no off-side rule and goalkeeper. A game where anyone is free to run anywhere. Where the best way to defend is always to attack.

Most children are taught to play football. These kids were born to play.

Every kick, handball, baulk and bounce looks like a natural extension of their wiry bodies.

Yet their path to a career at the highest level is littered with barriers.

They’ve even been told they’ll only be drafted if one of their parents is white.

Former Adelaide recruiting manager Matt Rendell was widely criticised for those comments in 2012, but they’re proving sadly prophetic.

According to a feasibility study conducted into an NT AFL team, AFL clubs recruited 10 players from the Northern Territory in 2010 and 2011.

In 2018 and 2019 they recruited none.

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That’s not because of a lack of talent. Some clubs have become as risk-averse in their recruiting as they are with their game plans. Better to chip it sideways to a safe option than take the game on through the middle.

Now, an ambitious group in the Top End it hoping to reverse that trend. It’s making a bold bid for an NT AFL team.

The group believes the team will have huge social benefits in a part of the country where levels of disadvantage are extreme.

But it also wants a kid from Barunga to have the same chance of reaching the highest level, as one from Berwick or Bayswater.

The Northern Territory has made a huge contribution to the AFL.

It might be time for the game to give something back.