News Archive

Kevin Taylor, 2nd year Medical student was selected as one of the fifty Indigenous players aged between 18 - 24 from all over Australia for the AFL/Rio Tinto Footy Means Businessprogram.  Initially this meant travelling to Sydney in November 2011 for draft camp testing and playing in a North vs South game where Kevin was awarded "best on ground."  Apart from this, the experience involved exposing players to AFL, Indigenous athletes such as Michael O'Loughlin, Patrick Johnson, Xavier Clarke and Chris Johnson as well as some skills and leadership workshops.

In March, Kevin was selected as one of three Indigenous footballers to travel to Port Moresby for a cultural tour and to engage with local communities.  This was part of Australia Week celebrations in Papua New Guinea hosted by the Australian High Commission in PNG from March 7 - 11.   The opportunity was to promote AFL and represent Indigenous football as part of culture.  It involved working with children at a Port Moresby school.   While 50 students were expected, 200 turned up for the "football clinics".  Kevin said it was about "teaching basic skills."  Kevin and the other team members also attended a number of functions and talked to students at high schools.   The week concluded with exhibition matches organised by AFL PNG.  Kevin and the two other footballers played in the main game between the Emerging Mosquitoes and the AFL PNG Academy.

In May, Kevin will travel to Melbourne for Dreamtime Week , and with the 50 players on the program, will train with Essendon and Richmond and then play the curtain raiser before the Dreamtime game which celebrates the contribution of Indigenous people to AFL at the MCG.

Media references

Gabrielle Garratt (School of Indigenous Studies) (+61 8) 6488 2467

Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783