Winning the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee award.

It was a proud moment when I won the NAIDOC 2016 Sportsperson of the Year because I take where I come from very seriously, growing up in a mission in Taree. To be amongst people like Adam Goodes and Patrick Mills who have won it before and have my name amongst them was an unbelievable feeling of achievement.

Out of all the Socceroos games that I had played, the A-League Championships I had won, this individual award was my biggest sporting achievement to date. It was one of the proudest moments in my career.

Winning the award is one of the highest accolades you can get as a sportsperson around Australia. It was a special honour and it was an achievement that Australian football had rarely been involved with.

But Football Federation Australia had no idea that one of their players won this prestigious award. It had to take one of my friends to contact the FFA to let them know that. If that had been an Adam Goodes in the AFL or Party Mills in basketball everybody in that code would have known about it.

That is how far behind we are as a code when it comes to Indigenous football, that the governing body didn’t even know that I had won.

Australian Football’s opportunity

The Indigenous population is three per cent of the total Australian population but when you look at AFL they have nine percent and Rugby League has 12 percent of Indigenous athletes who play their sports, but football has less than one percent Indigenous representation in the A-League.

It’s because the other codes like AFL, Rugby League, Rugby Union and even Cricket have all these programs out there.

But there is an opportunity there for Australian football. If you watch Indigenous players who play in the AFL, you can see how skilful they are and their ball skills and the speed they possess. If you look at the NRL a lot of the Indigenous boys play in key positions as well.

So, it’s a great opportunity for Indigenous kids to show their skills in football. That is something that I will be focusing on. I want to get more kids playing the round ball game.

I’ve had numerous conversations over the years with FFA about Indigenous football. It’s a tough one. I can totally understand that the FFA are busy with the things that they want to do so if you want to do things you have to try and do it yourself.

If you do a good job people will start to wake up and have a look and realise there is an opportunity to give back to the first people of this nation to play the biggest sport in the world.

We have so much talent in our own backyard, whether it’s spread across Queensland, Central Australia or South Australia, there is untapped Indigenous talent everywhere. It’s just a matter of creating these programs and finding them so these kids can have opportunities.

Kickin’ with a Cuz

I’m a big supporter of John Moriarty and I’ve had a lot dealing with him over the years. I’m very supportive of what he’s trying to do and I think he’s doing a fantastic job with the John Moriarty Football (JMF) scholarship program.

He’s more established and kids from his programs are starting to get scholarships at schools and are involved with full-time training.

For the last couple of years I’ve been thinking about life after football and I’ve set up my own Indigenous football program called ‘Kickin with a Cuz’ which is a not for profit that is targeting kids that are a bit younger than JMF.

Eventually, I also want to provide pathways and promote a healthy lifestyle - that is my main goal.  Since 2016 I engaged with Indigenous and underprivileged kids and earlier in the A-League season I partnered with the Wollongong Wolves to launch the Pilot Program.

Former Sydney FC and Wollongong Wolves coach Jacob Timpano as well as other local coaches from Wollongong were also involved, as were players from the women’s team the Illawarra Stingrays.

We had a two-day clinic and the kids did not stop running around for each of the three-hour sessions of the program. The area stretched all the way from the Illawarra region to Nowra with kids from schools around those areas participating, but once my program expands, I plan to go to other areas around Australia.

My dream

I come from a background where growing up we had no money. I grew up in a single parent home and I had to repair the holes in my boots as I couldn’t afford new ones.

Being Indigenous as well I know the struggles and what it’s like to live in those communities where there is a lot of alcohol abuse and domestic violence and all these sorts of things the kids face growing up in their communities.

So, my program wants to give back to the kids that are a bit unfortunate and cannot afford to be a part of these soccer clinics and all those programs that are around these days.

So, I want to be there to help get them off the streets and put them in the right direction. I’ve had a lot of interest from all around Australia with people wanting to be involved with ‘Kickin' with a Cuz’.

I have prominent football people on my board who are supporting my program, so it’s been going very well. It’s about community engagement, so if I do see any talent during my clinics, then I can help kids register with a state league club.

I realise lot of these kids won’t be the next Harry Kewell but it’s about getting the kids off the street and getting them to play sport, and more specifically, football. My goal in 10-15 years time is to see men and women Indigenous players lining up and playing for the Matildas and the Socceroos.

There is so much untapped talent out there. They are just little gold mines waiting to be discovered and all they need is to be given an opportunity to play the round ball game.

As told to Con Stamocostas