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Well-Known Member
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/05/15/1242335880618.html
Nice piece from SMH
GLENN THOMPSON threw a ball to a couple of bored teenagers as they kicked soft drink bottles in the red dust of northern Australia.
"The next thing we knew everyone in town seemed to be chasing the ball soccer is a natural game for these kids, who are lightning fast and can turn on a sixpence."
What Thompson sees as the start of a revolution that will threaten the dominance of Australian football in remote Aboriginal communities was on display during the Arafura Games in Darwin this week.
An all-indigenous squad of young soccer players became one of the star attractions after travelling 1000 kilometres from Borroloola, a tiny, isolated community on the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory.
Calling themselves the Borroloola Cyclones, the players caused the upset of the games with a 4-nil win over the under-16 Northern Territory Boys.
"They went through like a category-five cyclone. They really lived up to their name," Thompson, their coach, says.
They also put on what commentators called an electrifying performance against Macau, maintaining ball possession for more than 60 per cent of the game only to lose in the dying moments, 3-nil.
"The boys have made history," Thompson says.
How in the few years since being introduced to the round ball, Borroloola, population 900, became the first NT community to shun Australian football and adopt soccer is a story that will ring alarm bells in the Melbourne offices of the Australian Football League.
"Auskick people turned up in Borroloola with a heap of give-aways but it was a waste as soccer now dominates there," Thompson says, referring to the AFL's nationwide program to introduce Australian football to boys and girls in primary school.
Thompson, 61, a handyman at Borroloola School who played Australian football in his younger days in Tasmania, says soccer is a natural sport for Aborigines because they are so agile and swift.
"I'll make a brave prediction soccer will eventually overtake Aussie rules up here because it is a global game," he says. "When you make the national Aussie rules team, where can you go? Ireland to play some bastardised form of the game?"
John Pluto, 21, a stockman and one of the Cyclones' stars, says he played Australian football four years ago but is now sold on soccer because it is "more skilful and fun". His idols are the Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho and Australian Harry Kewell.
"I watch them on Austar. It's a game that goes all the way up everywhere in the world. The kids in Borroloola are playing it as soon as they can walk."
Borroloola Council has sunk a bore to develop a new oval for Australian football. But residents say almost everyone looks forward to Saturday mornings for "soccer time".
There are no formal teams but players form into four groups representing where they live. The goal posts are usually a couple of hats. "Getting a game of soccer up is simple all you need is a round ball and away you go," Thompson says.
"I hear what people say about this being Aussie rules territory and all that, but believe me, soccer will start to dominate out here and I predict that will happen when one day we host the soccer World Cup."
More than 3000 people from 50 countries competed in the Arafura Games.
Nice piece from SMH
GLENN THOMPSON threw a ball to a couple of bored teenagers as they kicked soft drink bottles in the red dust of northern Australia.
"The next thing we knew everyone in town seemed to be chasing the ball soccer is a natural game for these kids, who are lightning fast and can turn on a sixpence."
What Thompson sees as the start of a revolution that will threaten the dominance of Australian football in remote Aboriginal communities was on display during the Arafura Games in Darwin this week.
An all-indigenous squad of young soccer players became one of the star attractions after travelling 1000 kilometres from Borroloola, a tiny, isolated community on the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory.
Calling themselves the Borroloola Cyclones, the players caused the upset of the games with a 4-nil win over the under-16 Northern Territory Boys.
"They went through like a category-five cyclone. They really lived up to their name," Thompson, their coach, says.
They also put on what commentators called an electrifying performance against Macau, maintaining ball possession for more than 60 per cent of the game only to lose in the dying moments, 3-nil.
"The boys have made history," Thompson says.
How in the few years since being introduced to the round ball, Borroloola, population 900, became the first NT community to shun Australian football and adopt soccer is a story that will ring alarm bells in the Melbourne offices of the Australian Football League.
"Auskick people turned up in Borroloola with a heap of give-aways but it was a waste as soccer now dominates there," Thompson says, referring to the AFL's nationwide program to introduce Australian football to boys and girls in primary school.
Thompson, 61, a handyman at Borroloola School who played Australian football in his younger days in Tasmania, says soccer is a natural sport for Aborigines because they are so agile and swift.
"I'll make a brave prediction soccer will eventually overtake Aussie rules up here because it is a global game," he says. "When you make the national Aussie rules team, where can you go? Ireland to play some bastardised form of the game?"
John Pluto, 21, a stockman and one of the Cyclones' stars, says he played Australian football four years ago but is now sold on soccer because it is "more skilful and fun". His idols are the Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho and Australian Harry Kewell.
"I watch them on Austar. It's a game that goes all the way up everywhere in the world. The kids in Borroloola are playing it as soon as they can walk."
Borroloola Council has sunk a bore to develop a new oval for Australian football. But residents say almost everyone looks forward to Saturday mornings for "soccer time".
There are no formal teams but players form into four groups representing where they live. The goal posts are usually a couple of hats. "Getting a game of soccer up is simple all you need is a round ball and away you go," Thompson says.
"I hear what people say about this being Aussie rules territory and all that, but believe me, soccer will start to dominate out here and I predict that will happen when one day we host the soccer World Cup."
More than 3000 people from 50 countries competed in the Arafura Games.
