Nauru eyes Cup glory

By Tanya Paolucci
Updated November 7 2012 - 5:29am, first published August 11 2011 - 12:08pm
Jude Cook, Deiri Cook, Zac Temaki, Trent Depaune, Coach Graham Pratt, Robby Deireragea and Timothy Teabuge.
Jude Cook, Deiri Cook, Zac Temaki, Trent Depaune, Coach Graham Pratt, Robby Deireragea and Timothy Teabuge.

They are tough, explosive and completely footy mad.Some players in Nauru’s national Australian Rules team, which will take part in next week’s 2011 AFL International Cup, have made central Victoria football leagues their home away from home over the past month.In Bendigo, Nauruan players have joined Maryborough in the Bendigo Football League and Bridgewater in the Loddon Valley League, while six players have taken up places in the Wimmera Football League in the lead-up to the International Cup.Despite being located almost 4000 kilometres from the Australian coast, Nauru has for decades played, watched and followed Australian Rules football.Nauru Chiefs national team coach and newly-appointed Bendigo Bombers Football Club manager Graham Pratt said Nauru was without a doubt one of the most ‘footy mad’ nations in the world.“There are about 10,000 people in Nauru,” Pratt said.“They get somewhere in the vicinity of 3000 people to their grand final, so if you like, they could promote that as the highest participation community of AFL in the world because 30 per cent of their population come out and get involved.”AFL was introduced to Nauru in the 1930s, when several young Nauruans travelled to Australia.The then wealthy island, as a result of a prosperous phosphate trade, sent young people to Australia to further their education and experience Australia’s culture.“They have been playing Aussie Rules footy there since 1930 and it was taken to them,” Pratt said. “There was a time that Nauru was quite wealthy and they used to send all of their teenage boys over to schools here in Australia.“A lot of them came to Victoria and one who came here played Aussie Rules and took the game back.“From there it sort of became that every boy wanted to be sent to Victoria or Tasmania for boarding school, so they could play football here.”The small island nation’s interest in the game has continued to grow over the past 80 years, with AFL football very much reflected in Nauruan culture.“They really live it and breathe it there,” Pratt said. “I met a kid whose first name was ‘Lockett’ and I’ve also heard of kids’ names ‘Jesaulenko’ and ‘Ablett’, so their first names have come from some of our favourite AFL players.“They also all get satellite TV, so they know all the theme songs.“For example, on grand final day, all the teams play in AFL colours. The names are things like the ‘Marlins’, the ‘Skipjacks’ or the ‘Dolphins’, but if the side that wore Collingwood won, every time that team kicked a goal the Collingwood theme song would be played – and they all know it and can sing them all.”According to Pratt, the six Nauruan players in the Bendigo or Loddon Valley leagues have relished the opportunity to play in a ‘real’ football environment.“There are probably about 300 kids who play in the Nauruan league and that all play at the one ground, which is made of crushed phosphate and is basically gravel,” he said.“It’s a tough way to play footy, so the opportunity to come over here and play footy on grass in our climate will be a real experience.”Both Maryborough and Bridgewater Football Clubs have worked hard to give the Nauruan players the best possible AFL experience, allowing them to train and play in their reserves sides, including the opportunity to play on the Bendigo’s premier ground, the QEO.“The boys at Maryborough got to play at the QEO last weekend and the guys who are out at Bridgewater got really upset because they didn’t get to play there,” Pratt said.“A couple of them did get the opportunity to come out to Bendigo Bombers training one night, and they were fortunate it was a night that Shannon Grant was out there, so it was a great experience.“They also got involved in Golden Square’s big school program, where they kicked footys and helped out.”The Nauruan players were also treated to a memorable AFL experience courtesy of the Maryborough club.“The whole six of them were taken by Maryborough Football Club to Richmond training and then a tour of the MCG, and then the four Maryborough boys were taken to the Essendon versus Collingwood game,” Pratt said.“The crowd at the MCG that day was probably about nine times the population of Nauru, so it would have been a super experience for them.”Nauru Chiefs captain Trent Depaune, who was based at Bridgewater Football Club, said he was hopeful the Nauru team would have success at this year’s International Cup.The team finished in fifth place in 2008, losing only to Papua New Guinea, which was the eventual champion.“We’ll do great and it will be great,” Depaune said.“I reckon we’ll finish either second or third, but Papua New Guinea are still the best.“They were too fast for us the last time we played them. I think this time we will be much better than before.”Nauru’s 2011 AFL International Cup experience began with the players leaving Bendigo on Wednesday afternoon.The team arrived in Sydney yesterday, where the players took part in a range of training programs and activities in the lead-up to tomorrow’s first match.The Nauru team, which is seeded fifth behind PNG, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland, will take on Japan and Fiji in the first round before the competition is separated into divisions.The AFL International Cup grand final will be played on August 27 at the MCG as a curtain-raiser to the Hawthorn and Western Bulldogs clash.

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