Richard McRoberts

Age 16
Club: Casuarina FC
League: Northern Zone Premier League, Darwin
Position: Defender

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Northern Territory may not have the profile of the “big” football states in the east, but it has produced players of note: you may recall a player called Frank Farina, as well as Hamilton Thorpe, who was signed by Terry Venables for Portsmouth in the ’90s. And there’s big John Tambouras, the erstwhile New Zealand Knight.

Now the NT experts have high hopes for another strapping defender, teenager Richard McRoberts.

“Although born in the Sudan, I grew up in Kenya and did not begin to play in a structured competition until I came to Darwin aged 10,” explains McRoberts. “Football in my early childhood was limited to kicking a ball around the streets and play areas with my brothers and friends in Nairobi.

“Of course, it gets quite hot in Darwin but we are lucky in that the football season takes place during the dry season, in slightly lower temperatures and humidity. Pre-season training is always the hardest as this takes place in those weeks before the dry season when, if it doesn’t rain to cool you down, the humidity can be a killer. Playing and training in these conditions can only benefit me if ever I make the A-League,” says McRoberts, a Perth Glory fan who enjoys watching the likes of Simon Colosimo and Nathan Burns.

McRoberts recently played with the Northern Territory in the Arafura Games –a competition for emerging athletes in the Asia Pacific region held every two years.

“Although I always liked to play as a striker when kicking the ball around in Nairobi, I am developing as a defender playing just in front of our sweeper.

“I am over six feet tall but slightly built so I rely on my ability to read the play and speed. I like to think that I am quite creative and not just a routine stopper.”