Mundine plans national tour to help at-risk youth
What started as a casual conversation between the two great mates, Anthony Mundine and Territorian and former NBL star Timmy Duggan, at last month’s Australian Indigenous Basketball Tournament in Cairns quickly developed into serious plans for them to visit at-risk youth all over Australia.
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FORMER world champion boxer Anthony ‘Choc’ Mundine is so dedicated to changing the lives of at-risk youth, it brought him to tears not long after one of the biggest fights of his career.
This was why he became emotional when talking to the NT News about the Territory-wide and national tours he wants to embark on with 2019 Darwin Basketball Championship-winning coach at Razzle and former NBL star, Timmy Duggan.
What started as a casual conversation between the two great mates at last month’s Australian indigenous basketball tournament in Cairns quickly developed into serious plans for them to visit at-risk youth all over the NT and Australia.
And they are hopeful it can all start this year.
“After the second fight I had against Danny Green (at Adelaide Oval in February, 2017) I was sitting in my dressingroom and a guy came in. He wouldn’t let go of me because he was so emotional,” Mundine told the NT News.
“I asked him ‘are you all right?’
“And he said ‘you don’t know what you’ve done for me and my young daughter’.
“She called me and said she was going to neck herself and I told her ‘please don’t do it – one day we’re going to meet Anthony Mundine’.
“And when he said that I started crying with him. I’ll never forget that moment.
“He told me ‘because of you she’s still here’.”
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Many people might be surprised to find out the story above was not Mundine’s light bulb moment when he suddenly wanted to start working with troubled kids.
Away from the cameras – where he has become known for his outlandish and controversial statements when he was a professional NRL player and boxer – Mundine has long been an advocate for inspiring at-risk youth.
🗣 TIMMY DUGGAN 🔊🔛 pic.twitter.com/C7JZFweite
— Illawarra Hawks (@IllawarraHawks) December 15, 2018
The now-retired boxer has been an official patron in Duggan’s Hoops 4 Health initiative since 2006, and Lindsay Munro is also hoping to join them on their Territory-wide and national tour.
Munro is a former Sydney Comets representative basketball player alongside Duggan and Mundine, and all three coached the Razzle senior men’s team in Cairns.
There, it was Mundine’s idea to jump in a car and head to the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah – about 50km outside the northern Queensland city.
The three Razzle coaches conducted a basketball clinic.
“It was all led by Choc. He wants to do stuff like that. He wants to inspire and motivate people,” Duggan said.
It was a far cry from the character Mundine portrayed himself during his NRL and boxing career – a gifted athlete, but one who was not afraid to ruffle the feathers of his opponents.
“When he was a boxer, a lot of people saw him for the entertainment value – it’s a sport where you need heroes and villains,” Duggan said.
“But when we go out to inspire people in need, they all see him as a genuine person.
“He’s ready to go and he really wants to make an impact. Anthony is a non-smoker and non-drinker – he just gets high on life and helping people.
“We just need a (financial) backer now.”
It was a conversation Mundine had with Duggan about his work at Don Dale Detention Centre – where he recently conducted his 150th clinic – which inspired the former rugby league and boxing star to also want to get involved.
Mundine mentioned the NT Government in those conversations, and believes with his profile it would be a great opportunity for the Territory’s policy makers to get involved and provide financial assistance.
In return, the NT Government would receive no shortage of positive publicity on the back of Mundine’s household name.
“I told Timmy, ‘let me come with you – let’s go on a national motivational tour to help troubled kids’,” Mundine said.
“I want to use my platform to change lives, and I want to work with the NT Government.”
For the past three years, Duggan has seen his work with the Danila Dilba organisation at Don Dale – conducting basketball clinics every weekend – as a labour of love.
“I try to motivate and inspire the kids, but I feed off it, too. It also gets me going in a positive way,” he said.
“I use a lot of real-life examples as inspiration for them, like (2019 AFL Grand Final winner) Marlion Pickett from the Richmond Tigers.”
Over seven years ago, Pickett was released from jail for a string of burglary offences in Western Australia.
The positive advice from his older brother Tyson saw him turn his life around and make a remarkable transition from a cell to the footy field, before making an unforgettable and highly impressive debut in the Tigers’ 2019 winning grand final team.
“Marlion was in a similar situation – he got put into youth detention at 17, and now he’s an AFL premiership player,” Duggan said.
“There was Chris Herren at the Boston Celtics. During his warm-ups he used to say ‘I’m just going to the locker room’, then he’d run outside to his drug dealer on the street.
“But he turned his life around and now goes into schools telling kids about what he went through and how important it is to stay active.”
As well as the inspirational stories, Duggan also prefers to keep his advice simple when teaching the youth basic basketball skills at Don Dale.
“There was an occasion in early 2019 when I was demonstrating how to shoot a basketball and I asked the young person ‘who is your coach?’” Duggan said.
“And he replied ‘you’.
“I then asked him to demonstrate a shot attempt at the hoop.
“The shot missed. I then asked him why it missed.
“He replied ‘I should have shot it like a rainbow’.
“I then asked him ‘who is your coach?’ again. He replied ‘you’.
“I said ‘who fixed or identified how to make your shot more accurate?’
“He replied ‘me’.
“I then said again, ‘so who is your coach when I’m not here?’
“And he said ‘well … me!’
“The analogy used here is you can fix your mistakes and not rely on someone else to fix them for you.
“I often say to them ‘you are your best coach’.”
In 2020, the prospect of Mundine joining Duggan as a real-life role model at youth detention centres, and small and remote indigenous communities – someone who at-risk kids can actually see, touch and learn off instead of just hearing their stories – is something that greatly excites the respected basketball and life mentor.
“He (Mundine) is a man who can inspire and influence so many people in a positive way,” Duggan said.
“You look at people like Muhammad Ali, Cathy Freeman, Michael Long and Nova Peris – they’ve had a positive effect on thousands of people, and Choc is the same.
“It’s very exciting he wants to be a part of this.”
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