FAR FROM the traditional suburban Auskick sessions and inner-city school programs, a group of people work hard to deliver footy clinics in the Northern Territory.
The AFL employs a small team of remote game development officers spread across thousands of km, creating programs that best work for their locals, whether that's creating a school-adjacent session, or simply facilitating a run around.
AFL.com.au spoke to Alice Springs' Tommy Dutton and Tiwi Islands' Josh Kleine, to learn a bit more about what goes into an everyday week at opposing ends of the Territory and how football is being used to drive positive social outcomes.
Alice Springs
Dutton is one of two remote development managers based out of Alice Springs, and along with Simon Treiber, the pair cover about 1200km a week, delivering footy programs to 15-20 Central Australia communities.
Some communities are only reached a couple of times a year, others are more regular trips, but there's no getting around the sheer number of hours spent on the red dust roads.
Dutton is an Alice Springs local, with somewhat of a winding road back to working in his hometown.
After moving to Perth to study psychology, Dutton lived in Columbia – co-starting the country's Australian Rules team along the way, while running a tour company – before returning to Alice. Looking for a job in community development, and with a love of footy, the job was a perfect fit.
"Our main priorities are around youth at risk and women's participation," Dutton said.
"Youth at risk can mean our community youth football league competitions out on country, could involve running school holiday programs out on country, or we do events during the year, like a mid-year footy fair, where the most talented kids will come in and play a competition during school holidays.
"We'll then link them in with key stakeholders for a broad range of issues around things like sexual education, tackling Indigenous smoking, women's safety houses, and try and utilise football as a pathway to education, and making yourself a better person through footy.
"Then it can be as simple as registered Auskick and Superkick clinics out on communities, so that those kids are engaged, ideally at their schools, through that program to stay on the right path and also provide the same opportunities as a young person in Melbourne, have them registered on PlayHQ to allow them to join a club in the future."
In recent years, participation rates in women's football have exploded across the country, and central Australia is no exception.
"It might involve school holiday programs with the women. There's a new competition in Yulara, which led to a Grand Final, then that footy fair in the mid-year, where women represent their communities," Dutton said.
"We'll also go out of communities where they play their own carnivals, and support women to do umpiring or coaching courses, so they feel more empowered to continue to run their footy.
"We're super lucky that our working week is very different. We're not just running school programs, or a footy competition, or just with talented kids. We work across everyone, and I see it as community development using AFL as the carrot."
The width and breadth of area covered is a far cry from the concentrated cities on the coast.
"In term three, we did a Superkick program in Mutitjulu, which is next to Yulara, so it's about 550km from Alice Springs," Dutton said.
"Right now, it's not footy season, so we do social football in our communities to keep men and women fit, but also when you get people exercising, your mental and physical wellbeing go through the roof.
"We do social footy in Santa Teresa, which is only 70km down the road. We do that under lights, nine-a-side, the men and women design their own uniforms, and the kids do Auskick prior, and then watch their aunties, uncles, fathers and mothers play.
"We might get to Docker River (Kaltukatjara), which is 750km away, once a year to support a sports carnival."
For comparison's sake, Melbourne to Adelaide is about 720km, while the "down the road" Santa Teresa is the equivalent of Melbourne to Geelong, but mostly via dirt roads.
In his spare time, Dutton runs the All-Abilities clinic in Alice Springs, weekly footy sessions for people living with a mental or physical disability.
Having tagged along to a session mid-year while in town, it's possibly the happiest footy clinic in the country, with modified kicking games, lots of tackle bags, and plenty of dance breaks and laughter.
"We started that maybe four years ago, and that's what I really love. People that come to the program are generally from remote communities who can't access all the support they need from an NDIS perspective, so they now live in Alice Springs," Dutton said.
"We get to do football for that crew in a fun and meaningful way. If you don't kick the footy, you might want to make the shirts we wear each year. Or you might just want to dance, or make lunches. Everyone's part of it, just like any football club in the land – you've got star players, and the helpers.
"I started it because I wanted to get the people who were disengaged in the town to come and have a feed and a chat. And it ended up being a place where a lot of NDIS providers started bringing their clients, it became an outlet.
"Within the first three months of the program, it changed from being for people who were disengaged, to being this inclusive space for people living with a disability. It started organically.
"You realise how lucky you are, when there's someone in a wheelchair having a kick. Or maybe they can't handpass, so you create games to meet their capabilities, and make sure they have a great time. That social connectedness, that's probably the biggest part of the program. Like a footy club does for everyone else."
Tiwi Islands
Josh Kleine is the football development lead for the Tiwi Islands, a role he's held for about 12 months, having previously worked in footy in West Arnhem and Mackay.
The Tiwi Islands have two main bodies of land – Bathurst and Melville – sitting 80km north of Darwin, and the vast majority of the population are Indigenous.
"My role has some elements that are unique to the rest of the remote development team, because it comes through the game development investment," Kleine said.
"My core areas are built around administration and logistics support for the Tiwi Bombers, some game development in regards to setting up some junior pathway programs and the smaller stuff with Auskick, but also coaching and umpire education.
"There's also talent pathways, with academy stuff as well."
Kleine spends most of his week on Bathurst, but also stays overnight on Melville.
"Given how broad my job is, I try and get as much structure in my week as I can, but it also depends on the season as well. We're now in the NTFL season (based on the mainland), as opposed to our local TIFL season through your winter down south," he said.
"At the moment, Mondays are a bit of a planning day. I have meetings with my managers based in Darwin, with the NT Talent Academy team, all that sort of stuff. Office and administration, capped off with a program at the end of the day.
"At the moment, depending on the heat, we're running an emerging talent program, a training session for the boys on Monday, and then we replicate it for the girls on Tuesday."
With Tuesdays reserved for community engagement and staying in touch with locals, Kleine's week begins in earnest on Wednesday.
"We do a joint program that we support between Essendon and Xavier Catholic College, the (co-ed) high school in Wurrumiyanga (on Bathurst Island). Fifty per cent of the lesson is in the classroom, and 50 per cent is out doing football at school," Kleine said.
"For the education side, we use football as a bit of a tool. Last term, it was nutrition. This term, we're talking about legacy. The teachers are heavily involved in leading it, it becomes part of their curriculum, but we just use football as aa tool to help push that message."
Then it's time for Kleine to drive his car to the ferry, crossing to Melville Island and Tiwi College, a boarding school, where he runs another training session.
There's hope "Academy" will lead into a bigger "Tiwi Islands Academy" program next year, with a greater focus on more advanced game tactics and skill development for high schoolers.
He stays overnight at the school, facilitating a game on Thursday morning, then it's back on the ferry to Xavier College, helping the students out with their other sports to help build relationships.
By Friday in the wet season, focus shifts to the upcoming round of NTFL, the Tiwi Bombers fielding men's and women's team in the Darwin competition.
"There are some players who are based in Darwin, which is the easy part, but then we've got three communities across two islands – we need to get them on different flights, sometimes charter flights, and sometimes the ferry as well," he said
The nitty gritty worked out, and it's time for Auskick on Friday night, before Kleine heads off to travel with the Bombers into Darwin.
"Probably one thing a lot of people don't realise down there is that footy runs for a full 12 months of the year, we don't stop for a cricket season or anything, we are 100 per cent footy," he said.
"During the TIFL season, it's even more full-on, I'm basically seven days a week. The TIFL has its own board, but we provide administrative support around that, help run games, but trying to upskill the locals as much as possible.
"The passion over here and the love of footy is just phenomenal, everyone's really driven to want to play. It's a great focus and a great driver for change, just the positive social impacts it has on the community.
"Mary Dunn (AFLW Indigenous Round honouree) has said since the women's comp started, she's noticed little things in terms of the confidence and leadership and independence some of the ladies have gotten off the back of it.
"As much as Tiwi footy gets a massive rap, because there's been a great deal of talent who have gone on to achieve a lot of really big things, there's going to be a lot more to come."
