TRIPLE premiership player Chris Johnson says the creation of an all-indigenous under-18s team will give talented indigenous Victorian footballers such as Gippsland youngster Derek Hayes a better chance of reaching the AFL.
Hayes was a member of the Laguntas all-indigenous under-18 team that played the Vic Country under-16 side at Punt Road Oval on Monday.
Described by Johnson as a magnificent athlete, Hayes has been focused more on boxing than football recently. An injured ankle kept him away from the game too.
Johnson, who is coaching the Laguntas team, said Hayes' involvement in the team was allowing him to regain some ground on his peers in the TAC Cup.
"This program has got him back up to speed again," Johnson said.
Other potential stars in the line-up include AIS-AFL Academy member Bohdi Walker and Aaron Christensen, younger brother of Geelong's Allen Christensen.
There has been concern expressed recently at the lack of young indigenous footballers from Victoria on AFL lists and the Laguntas program is seen as one way of addressing the issue.
The Laguntas team will play three games in the next 10 weeks and then play invitational games against TAC Cup teams in 2014.
However Johnson said there is next to no chance there would be any move to create a permanent all-indigenous team in the TAC Cup competition.
"I don't think we'd go that far," Johnson said. "We need to get this right first."
Johnson said if such an initiative had been around when he emerged from the TAC Cup into the AFL he would have been less likely to squander his talent in the early part of his career.
"If I had come through the talent pathway such as this Laguntas program I would have got more out of my football between 18 and 23," Johnson said.
"I thought I wasted my first five years in relying on my talent so much. I didn't actually understand what the requirements were to play elite football at the highest level."
The former Lion played with Northern Knights in the initial stages of the TAC Cup before joining Fitzroy in 1994. He played as a small forward in his first five seasons and was a member of Fitzroy's last team in 1996.
He joined the Brisbane Lions in his fourth season in 1997 and played in three flags. He became an All-Australian defender in 2002 (a premiership year) and 2004 and was runner-up in the club's best and fairest in 2005.
Johnson rejected criticism of the notion of an all-indigenous team, citing the advantages that come through such a project.
He said many of the Laguntas players – chosen from all over Victoria – were more inclined to speak out and ask questions in the environment created and were therefore less likely to experience the problems he encountered early in his career.
"They can relate to a lot of blokes next to them in terms of cultural identity stuff and community level stuff as well," Johnson said.
Coaches included Johnson, Terry Wallace, Darren Flanigan and AFL Victoria's Aaron Clark.
He said the program would not only fast track the Laguntas players' development in football but help accelerate their development outside football.
