Daw-inspiring feats bring Sudan into the heart of Aussie sport

IT'S the kind of feelgood story sport can't buy. A Sudanese refugee runs out on to a big city stadium to play for North Melbourne.

130420 Ajaki Daw AFL

IT is the kind of feelgood story sport cannot buy. A Sudanese refugee, having fled Khartoum with his mum, dad and eight brothers and sisters, runs out on to a big city stadium to play for North Melbourne in the AFL.

No matter how well Majak Daw plays tomorrow or how many senior matches the 22-year-old goes on to play, he will have realised a dream he first shared with his great mate Joe Halloran four years ago, when he quietly declared he wanted to be the AFL's first Sudanese player.

And nowhere will his achievement resound more loudly than the Melbourne outer suburb of Wyndham Vale and the windswept oval where Daw learned to play.

Daw's football began in earnest when his family shifted to a house opposite the ground. On the same oval last night, his brother Ajak, 7, was among 50 kids laughing through an Auskick clinic.

Majak's other brother Anthony Daw, now 16, has already grabbed the attention of AFL scouts. But according to Halloran, who played alongside Majak throughout his junior career, Ajak is the one to watch. "He has got some genuine skills with the footy," he said.

Majak's mother Elizabeth said the entire family would be at Etihad Stadium tomorrow, along with another 40 extended family and Sudanese community members. Yesterday Elizabeth received a call from her sister in South Sudan, who had read about Majak's selection on the internet.

"It is a good day," Elizabeth said last night. "We have been waiting for three years."

Wyndham Vale's under-18 captain Tito Nyawela will also be at the ground, proudly wearing the Team Africa jumper he earned by playing in this year's Harmony Cup, an event staged to celebrate multiculturalism in football.

Wyndham Vale is one of Australia's fastest growing municipalities and, within it, newly arrived Sudanese and first-generation immigrants from other Horn of Africa countries are a fast growing part. At the Wyndham Vale Football Club, Sudanese players made up half of the under-18 team last year.

Nyawela grew up three houses down from Daw's house and said his first senior match was a big day for the Sudanese community. "All the work he has done has paid off," he said. "Footy gets people from different cultures together. It is something for us to do, it gets us involved in the community, it helps us stay out of trouble."

Daw's progression to the national competition has not come easy. Halloran recalled that when his friend first started playing for Wyndham Vale at age 14, he had an ungainly kicking style and little sense of how the game was played.

In one early game for Werribee, one of North Melbourne's feeder teams, he booted a goal from 50m out, only to learn his team was kicking the other way. On his first pre-season with North Melbourne, Daw became so exhausted during a hike that coach Brad Scott ended up carrying his pack.

Yet Daw has also promised brilliance. He is tall, fast, powerful and blessed with a jaw-dropping leap. For the past three seasons, the job of turning Daw from a raw rookie into a professional footballer has fallen to North Melbourne development coach John Lamont.

Lamont says this season, Daw's fourth, is the crunch year.

"The term role model gets bandied around a lot," Lamont said. "Majak is a real role model for Sudanese youth. If they want to hook in, it can be done. Majak is not perfect but he has done a hell of a job. And he is only at the launching pad, hopefully, of what will be a 10-year career."