Santa Teresa won the right to play in the curtain raiser before the Essendon versus Richmond Dreamtime at the ’G match after finishing first in their division of the Defence Jobs AFL Carnival last October.
The team arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday after travelling from their home in the Ltyente Apurte Community, 70km south-east of Alice Springs, for Saturday’s game.
Brentley Moreen watched his father Glenn play from the sidelines for many years before joining him in the team this season.
The father-son combination is expected to boost the side with Brentley providing run out of the centre and Glenn – admitting he’s not as fit as he used to be – stationed in the forward line.
“I always give it to the young fella, ’cos he’s got more run in him,” he said.
“I’m just here to give him experience and let him do all the running.”
Glenn said the atmosphere of playing in front of an MCG crowd was the most exciting aspect of the match.
While he had never had the opportunity to play on a pristine field such as the MCG, Brentley was revisiting the hallowed turf after playing with the Kickstart program in 2007.
Santa Teresa coach Phillip Alice said while they knew little about the form of their opponents, the team was coming off its ‘very best footy match’ in Alice Springs and would ‘give them a good game’.
“It’ll be a very good game because we’ve been training very hard before we came down here,” Alice said.
“They can jump very high and take good marks and they can run, run, run. They can do a lot of running and they can play good footy.”
Santa Teresa will play the Fitzroy Stars at the MCG on Saturday at 4.30pm.
Round nine is the AFL’s Indigenous Round, highlighting the relationship between the game and Indigenous Australia. This year’s round features a number of events, culminating in the Long Walk and the annual Dreamtime at the 'G game between Essendon and Richmond on Saturday night. Click here for full coverage.
