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Indigenous footy stars shine at highest level
NRL North Queensland Cowboys. Image: Getty images
by Stephen Hagan 5 October 2015
I
ndigenous sporting stars shone brightly in the AFL and NRL grand finals before capacity crowds in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. And to prove that they’re the best of the best Hawthorn’s Cyril Rioli and North Queensland Cowboy’s Johnathan Thurston took out the prestigious best players on ground in games that have made them household names. Proud Niguiu man Cyril Rioli was the clear favourite for the Norm Smith ‘best on ground’ medal winner polling 13 of a possible 15 votes from an expert panel of judges. To cap off a brilliant day before 98,633 fans at the MCG for
the mercurial Indigenous player the award was presented to him by a former Norm Smith medal winner and Adelaide Crows Indigenous champion Andrew McCleod. He dedicated the award to his cousin, Fabian ‘Brocky’ Brock, who was killed in a tragic shooting incident in Darwin in June this year. Rioli said: “That was my driving force for the second half of the year, dedicating the game to him.” Indigenous players Brad Hill and Shaun Burgoyne also shared in the three-peat for the Hawthorn Club – with Burgoyne adding the 3 premiership rings to the one he won with Port Adelaide in 2004. The final score was Hawthorn 5.0 9.3 14.5 16.11 (107) to West Coast 1.5 3.8 5.9 8.13 (61). A day after Indigenous stars
shone in the AFL grand final rival captains Justin Hodges, Brisbane Broncos, and Johnathan Thurston, North Queensland Cowboys, stood proudly with team mates to hear a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem sung by Darwin pop star Jessida Mauboy, whose mother Therese hails from the Kuku Yalanji people of the rainforest region in Far North Queensland. Thurston, a proud Gungarri man from western Queensland, kicked the winning field gold in extra time after team mate Michael Morgan set Kyle Feldt to score in the corner on the full time siren. Thurston was named Clive Churchill medal winner for ‘best player on ground’ as well as taking home the Channel Nine ‘man of the match’ cheque in the enthralling game won 17-16
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before a crowd of 82,758. Keiron Lander, yet another Indigenous captain to feature on grand final day, led his team the Ipswich Jets to the NRL State
www.firstnationstelegraph.com Championship with a 26-12 win over Newcastle. His high profile Indigenous try scoring machine, Marmin Barba, the younger brother of Cronulla utility Ben, scored a 95
Cyril Rioli
Johnathan Thurston
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metre try of the match to the delight of 30,000 Queenslanders who made their way to Sydney to witness their teams do battle in the main game of the day.