The Indigenous All-Stars (known as for sponsorship reasons Qantas Kickstart Indigenous All-Stars and formerly known as the Aboriginal All-Stars) are an Australian rules football team composed purely of Indigenous Australians.

While the team is based in Darwin, Northern Territory and plays its matches at Marrara Stadium, the players come from clubs around Australia. Until recently, it was selected from the best available players from several leagues around Australia. More recently, however, it is comprised almost entirely from players listed by clubs in the elite Australian Football League competition.

In recent years, top senior players have been restricted by their respective AFL clubs from participate in the match and increasingly it is being used as a practice match for developing players. Despite this, the Indigenous All-Stars remains highly competitive.

Matches against other clubs are assigned individual trophies however the best on ground for the Indigenous All-Stars is awarded the Polly Farmer Medal which is in honour of Graham Farmer.

[edit] History

The team was initially formed to compete in a representative match against the VFL club Richmond.

Later more regular matches against AFL teams were established in recognition of the rich history and talent that indigenous Australians have contributed to the national competition. Approximately one in ten AFL players are Aboriginal.^[1]

The highly successful team has competed in pre-season AFL matches and is primarily based out of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

To date, the All-Stars have been defeated only once when Essendon Football Club defeated them in February 2007.

The team has included champion players as Adam Goodes, Daryl White, Andrew McLeod, Byron Pickett, Michael O'Laughlin, Chris Johnson, Jeff Farmer, David Wirrpanda, Aaron Davey and Shaun Burgoyne. The team was coached by Michael "Magic" McLean on more than one occasion and Chris Johnson made his coaching debut in 2009.

Games featuring the All-Stars in Darwin have always attracted a large amount of interest and crowds.

In 2003, a record crowd of 17,500 attended a pre-season game in which the All-Stars defeated the Carlton Football Club at Marrara Oval.

Significant controversy in 2007 surrounded the Sydney Swans resistance to allowing Adam Goodes and Michael O'Laughlin to play in the match against Essendon. In the end, they were released by the club, but allowed a very small amount of game time only.

[edit] Sponsorship and Naming Rights

Until 2005, the All-Stars were sponsored by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, who had naming rights over the team. After the abolition of ATSIC, the team was renamed from Aboriginal All-Stars to Indigenous All-Stars. Since 2006, the team has been sponsored by Qantas through the AFL Kickstart indigenous program.

[edit] Results

[edit] Squads

[edit] 2009

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]

This Australian rules football-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e