The lure of skill, passion and genius enough to make Territory football families true icons

AUSTRALIAN football across the Northern Territory has its own special ingredient – sporting families with skill and passion

Five of the Long brothers, seen here with their late father Jack. Picture: MICHAEL MARSCHALL

TERRITORY football can boast a series of family dynasties, all of them brought up on the sound of bare feet or boots making contact with an inflated pig skin.

That has been the way through 100 years of the Top End game, through both World Wars, the Korean War and later the Vietnam conflict.

There is no “Best Of’’ from the families that have produced footballers of the highest order, those who put bums on seats on Saturday afternoons and even at night, as Lou Richards used to say in his time as the “Kiss Of Death’’.

The list begins with the AhMats, Riolis, Longs, Lew Fatts, Bonsons and Bowdens before extending to the McLeods, Dunns, Stokes, Abalas, Daveys, Clarkes, Motlops, Jeffreys and McLeans.

Move south and the McAdam, Campbell, White, Liddle, Mallard, Miller, Holt-Fitz and Coles families come into vogue for their on and off-field exploits.

Is there one factor that grips the imagination of footy fans across the Territory when they watched and still see all of those names go around?

As Grantland and New York Times magazine writer Brian Phillips once wrote: “Sport is like music or fiction or film.

“For a predetermined duration, it asks you to give it control over your emotions, to feel what it makes you feel.”

That is the way it is with Territory sporting families, their pride and passion combining to produce multi talented sportspeople and patient relations who watch every kick, mark, free kick or goal with more than a passing interest.

Who can ever forget the Long brothers at Darwin club St Mary’s, when all seven of them offered something different to a club well endowed in individual and team success?

For Brian, Noel, Chris, Steven, John, Michael and Patrick it was a labour of love kicking a football around Gardens Oval with their dad, the late Jack Long Sr, giving his stamp of approval from the boundary line.

In a twist the Long brothers rarely played together despite the family totalling more than 1000 games in a green and gold jumper.

The 1989 preliminary final was one of those times and while individual brilliance was the order of the day, team success eluded them.

Who was the best of the Longs? Was Michael an automatic choice because he later played with Essendon and won the Norm Smith Medal?

Or was the mercurial Steven Long, forced to retire from the game after 100 appearances because of a chronic knee injury and what about the immovable Brian Long across half back or Noel Long, who made the scoreboard wing at TIO Stadium his own?

The Rioli family offer the same degree of intrigue, with the late and great Maurice Rioli and his nephews Cyril at Hawthorn and Dean at Essendon adding their names to the list of Territory football magicians who thrilled sports fans everywhere.

Robbie AhMat’s explosive leg speed took him to Collingwood and Sydney, but his cousin Matthew and uncle “Nungah’’ were also class players who drew spectators through the gate.

Mark Motlop’s contribution as a player and coach to the Territory game cannot be measured in simple numbers and Andrew McLeod’s achievements over 340 AFL games make him a genuine contender for the greatest NT player.

Alice Springs will be forever proud of the McAdam, White and Bowden families for putting the Centralian town on the national grid and the word out of Tennant Creek is dual Nightcliff premiership forward Liam Holt-Fitz will be the town’s next Mayor.