Indigenous All-Stars (Australian Rules Football)
The Indigenous All-Stars (known as for sponsorship reasons Qantas Kickstart Indigenous All-Stars and formerly known as the Aboriginal All-Stars) are an Australian rules football team composed purely of Indigenous Australians.
The team was formed in 1983 to compete in an exhibition match in Mildura but has since become based in Darwin, Northern Territory and currently plays its matches at Marrara Stadium.
The team was formerly selected from the best available players from several leagues around Australia, however since the AFL has taken the team under its wing it has gradually moved away from this practice and since 2007 no player from outside the Australian Football League competition has been selected in the squad. The AFL promotes the concept as recognition of the indigenous Australians contribution to the national competition, with approximately one in ten AFL players identifying as an Indigenous Australian. The AFL has been criticised for letting its clubs restrict top senior players from participating the 2007 and 2009 matches and being used like the Australian Football League pre-season competition as a (pre-season) practice match for developing players. Despite this the team remains competitive and the match remains popular with fans and spectators.
Matches against other clubs are assigned individual trophies however the best on ground for the Indigenous All-Stars is awarded the Polly Farmer Medal which is in honour of Graham Farmer.
Read more about Indigenous All-Stars (Australian Rules Football): History, Sponsorship and Naming Rights, Results
Famous quotes containing the words indigenous and/or rules:
“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground,—and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as rustling leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The young break rules for fun. The old for profit.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)