This weekend’s National Indigenous Touch Football Knockout in Dubbo will be a sentimental one for the Tamworth-based Euraba team.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Not only does it mark 30 years since the team was first formed, but they will be playing in honour of local Aboriginal elder Vivian Knox, who sadly passed away last year.
The side was successful through the 90s but as the players got older it petered out.
It reformed last year, the side going on to take out C grade.
Jermain Walford has been the driving force behind getting the team off the ground again, and said with the NAIDOC theme this year being ‘Because of her we can’ “it just clicked”.
“It doesn’t just mean your mother, wife, sister or aunty – it means all the women in your life,” Walford said.
It is because of Knox that the team exists at all.
“She was the creator of the team,” he said.
“She paid for everything out of her own pocket.”
Fittingly some of her children and grand children will be taking to the field in her memory this weekend.
Read Also:
Knox will be literally close to their hearts with symbols representing her woven into the playing singlets and dress shirts that Walford has designed for the weekend, and which he will present to the players down in Dubbo.
They go in with high hopes, and a serious intent.
“We have a lot to play for,” Walford said.
By virtue of winning C grade last year they will automatically go into B grade.
It will then depend on their results as to whether they stay in B grade for the finals or go down or up a grade.
Walford is aiming for A grade and is confident they’ve got the talent to achieve that.
“This side is more mature than last year, and faster and stronger,” he said.
“And we’ve been training for a longer period of time.”
Unlike last year when they only started training two weeks before the carnival, the side has been training for four or five months.
“We know how each other play, and know our strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
The championships kick-off on Saturday.
