Words: Daniel Viles
Pictures: Brooke Sleep
BEN GREEN is focused.
His gold-shirted Western Australia teammates are showing plenty of energy, but Green is scanning the playing area through the goggles he wears in place of his usual glasses, checking his own players are where they need to be, and sizing up his opponents. His energy is 'captain energy'. Green also happens to be in a wheelchair on an indoor court.
2023 was Green's first year in wheelchair footy, joining the West Coast Eagles in the Western Australia Wheelchair Football League (WAWFL). By year's end, he was playing in the Grand Final of the Toyota Wheelchair AFL National Championships in Melbourne. Western Australia went down by 57 points to Victoria Metro, but Green was named his state's Best and Fairest for the series.
Watching him in action, directing his players into position and launching long left-handed passes from all parts of the court, it would be easier to believe he has been captaining his state for the last decade.
While the 37-year-old from Australind, 150 kilometres south of Perth, would have loved his side to go one better than last year, the week proved tough for the West Aussies. Halfway through the tournament, Green was realistic about his side's chances.
"We came into this year with a bit of an unknown of what our team could do. It was a very different team to what we took last year," he said.
"We had a quite a lot of new players, quite a lot of experienced players, so yesterday was more of a feeling-out kind of day, finding out where our best positions are."
The Toyota AFL Open gives players like Green the national stage they deserve. Combining the wheelchair and inclusion national championships into one event effectively doubles the audience for both tournaments. It's the kind of audience of which Green once dreamed.
"My ambition when I was around the age of 13 to 15 was definitely AFL," he said.
"I played Peel Thunder development squads all through those years. I wasn't quite getting the cut when it came to 16 and 17-year-olds, so I cut back and just played the local footy. I never really got the opportunity to play proper senior level league footy, though."
That opportunity was lost late in 2006 when Green had an accident at work which badly injured his right leg and left knee. He spent three months attempting to rehabilitate his leg before concluding that his best option was to amputate.
"We won a Colts premiership two years before in 2004, then I had a year off playing footy for work commitments. I was going get back into it the following year, started pre-season and everything," he said.
"Pretty much that same period time was the Eagles premiership and then my accident happened."
Footy also lost Ben. He played some wheelchair basketball in the intervening 17 years, a sport for which he says the only crossover skill is the ability to manipulate a wheelchair. Once Green learned of the existence of wheelchair Australian football, he had a path back to the sport he loved and the chance to be treated like the athlete he most wanted to be – a footballer.
"When I speak to friends and family and other people, and the way that West Coast and WA All Abilities promotes the game, we are promoted as football players. We are a part of the club; we are accepted as football players," Green said.
Wheelchair footy even seems to be 'troll-proof' on social media.
"Most of the time the comments you see on Facebook are like, 'Oh, I didn't even know that wheelchair football was a thing'. We don't really get any kind of negative comments," Green said.
Those new to watching wheelchair football usually love the novelty of watching players handballing to each other and through the goals while gliding around a court, but those who keep watching are rewarded by seeing the range of tactics available, even with only five players per team on court at once. Green can see the links between the strategies used outdoor and indoor.
"You've got the teams like Vic Metro that play a very good possession game. They slow the game right down with a kick-mark game," he said.
"And then you've got us who like to do the 'Pagan's Paddock'. Get up forward, get up high and then get out the back with pace. That's more our game style."
Inclusive forms of different sports often find themselves in an unending struggle between providing opportunities for inclusion and opportunities for excellence. Green's experience is that the Toyota AFL Open allows him to enjoy the best of both worlds.
"I think it's great that it's promoted that way. There are some guys who play who don't quite have the ability that I might have, and it is all about inclusivity for those guys," he said.
"But then there are guys like me who want to go out and win it and play hard and go hard and just be fierce at the ball. I think it goes both ways.
"(When) we play in our Perth league, you take it bit easier on some of the teams because they're not quite as good, but over here, you can just go as hard as you like, maximum effort every time and you don't have to worry about making anyone feel bad."
It's difficult to imagine the affable and articulate Green ever making anyone feel bad. Playing full-back during his side's loss to Victoria Country, he is beaten to a mark by a forward who had not yet scored in the tournament. Once the set-shot handball sails through for a major, Green allows himself a brief rueful grimace before handing out some genuine congratulations.
"It's great just to be able to hang out with all these guys that are in the same situation as me getting around in a wheelchair or some sort of disability," he said.
"We spend the days hitting the court with this fierce competition and then at the end of the day we get to relax, go out, do a few functions and things like that. It's a lot of fun."
In the minutes after handing out congratulations to his opponent, Green launches a right-handed pass from midcourt to find his full-forward in front of goal, then sneaks forward to score his own major.
Inclusion and excellence. For both Ben Green and the Toyota AFL Open, that doesn't have to be a choice.
Toyota are dedicated to creating more memorable moments as we work towards a thriving and inclusive society and are proud to support the AFL Open.