Merry Christmas from the Modlins in Alice Springs.
Elijah and his mate Cody. His family moved across the road from us and so Elijah loves it. They are at different schools next year, but I am sure will see each other.
The three kings for the Christmas play. Elijah was in line to play Joseph, but was away for the practice.
Josiah (Male Student of the Year), Ethan (Sportsperson of the term and gave me a big hug and peck on the cheek on the last night), Jake and Ben (brothers). Jake was Male Sportsperson of the year and Ben is currently at Centralian Senior College (Grade 10-12). Both of them play football for West. Jake has the potential to go further. They also play A grade basketball with me. The last 2 games, Gregg (my brother), played with the team. We won the last game by 2 points after being down by 10 in the last quarter...my first win with the A grade basketball.
Lionel and Glenn have both finished Grade 12. Glenn was the best performing indigenous student at Centralian. Also fine sportsmen and A grade basketballers. Lionel is from Doomadgee (it's in Qld for the unaware) and is a Cowboys supporter as well. We had a sad year.
Jerome (above) and Jeffrey (below) made me Christmas cards. The only 2 I got. Justin (above giving the thumbs up), is one of the sons of Sammy (the elder from Uluru I mentioned in an earlier blog). Jerome is orginally from an outstation of Rockhampton. I am not sure if he is there now.
This is Wayne. One of my little mates who was awarded the Principal's award. He is the type of student who you hope comes back.
This is Dylan. Loves to have shows of strength with me. Bumps, arm wrestles, lifts me off the ground and tightly squeezed hugs. A very handy footballer, but only been 1st and 4th term this year. Says he is not coming back and moving to Melbourne with his brother. Wait and see on that one.
Khearnee on the left gave me hell in 3rd term, but now really gets along with me. He comes and chats with me about what he has been doing at school.
Kanen (left) and Stanley (right). Both very handy footballers. Kanen has been there the whole year and is a handful..enough said on him. Stanley has the build and the skills to go all the way. He toured South Africa with the indigenous Under 16 team.
The four fellas played Under 17 this year for South. They came over to our house for tea before South's presentation night. A very T.I.A affair. It was supposed to start at 7pm. We turned up on time. It did not start till 8:30pm. I got a call from the boarding house asking where the fellas were at about 10pm. Luckily we were there long enough for me to accept the "Best Team Man" trophy. My brother said they gave it to me to keep the whitefella happy. I was happy. Zakk (doing the Westside symbol), Clinton (holding Joseph) and Peter (to my left) were suspended about 2 weeks after this for continual misbehaviour at school....they kept saying they did not want to be there, but I think something else was going on. Corey (black shirt) stayed the whole year and changed over the year in his attitude and ability. He is (hopefully) back next year and may start a traineeship/apprenticeship and still be playing footy for South. I had a minor run in with Corey as well, he was not doing as he was told, i had a pencil and was pointing it in his direction, which I found out is very threatening, like "let's sort this out with our fists or other objects". I backed down very quickly and apologised and basically said to Corey, "I trust you with my own kids, but I can't trust you to do what I ask you to do." Then is was over. Corey, came to me 2 days later and told me he was my son as well.....and that was it. I don't know what that really means, but I guess my boys might have a new big brother.
It had to come soon. I am now old enough to be playing Masters footy. The Masters Games come to Alice Springs every 2 years and it is BIG. I didn't imagine it could be that big, but when about 4000 people show up in your neighbourhood, you certainly notice it.
This is me, with the ball, having just taken a hanger over the Darwin fellas. In the background, you can see a lady in a red shirt and to her right are 2 fellas. One is Joe Clarke who I work with at Yirara and I have a photo of him in an earlier post, but next to him is Gilbert McAdam, ex St Kilda and Brisbane Lions player. Joe said he even mentioned me and was quite impressed i was playing for South in the local comp. The McAdams are all ex South players.
I am sprinting off the mark here, but you can see a Darwin player towards the bottom left who is ex-Essendon player Michael Long. He is not as fit as he use to be, but he still has the skills. It was great to be on the same field as him.
Week 4
