Aboriginal football talent thrills crowd

The GWABA Indigenous Football Carnival continues to grow from strength to strength with a strong contingent of past and present WAFL and AFL players putting their considerable skills on display in Bunbury at the weekend.

Roger Hayden, Leon Davis, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Ashley Sampi, Kirk Ugle, Gerard Ugle and Chance Bateman were just a few of the big names in attendance or on the field during the 12-team lightning tournament held at Hands Oval, Payne Park and Kelly Park on Saturday.

Hawthorn premiership winner and current Perth Demon Bateman said he was blown away by the standard of football at the carnival.

“To see the amount of people there supporting such an important day for the indigenous community was really uplifting and the spirit in which the games were played was a credit to the players and, of course, the organisers, ” he said.

“It was the very first time I have ever competed in the carnival and to see the amount of young indigenous talent we have running around first hand really gave me a buzz.”

The Perth Bulldogs beat defending champions Kelmscott 6.5 (41) to 3.7 (25) in an entertaining grand final to take home the Syd Jackson Cup and a year’s worth of bragging rights.

Carnival coordinator Les Wallam labelled the quality of the games “absolutely outstanding” and said he expected between 16 and 20 teams to take part next year.

“In the early days of the carnival it was difficult to just get league players from the South West to participate because they were worried about injuries, ” he said.

“Nowadays we get pretty much all of the league players as well as WAFL players and even AFL and ex-AFL players.

“We had 12 teams compete and had to turn another four down because they tried to register too late.

“There is easily enough talent to fill 20 teams and there would have been people there in attendance who saw the excitement of the day and will want to play next year.”

Despite cold weather and the constant threat of rain more than 2000 people turned out to watch the carnival, which also attracts attention from WAFL and AFL scouts.

“The carnival has become so important that coaches are looking far and wide to get an edge, we’ve even heard about recruitment from central Australia, ” Wallam said.

Kelmscott player Joel Houghton beat out the abundance of high-level talent taking part in the carnival to be award tournament best and fairest while 15-year-old John Garlett (Colts) was named the rising star.

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