The Indigenous Team of the Century (
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
) was selected to recognise the role of
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
in the sport. It was announced in 2005 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first senior-level game played by an indigenous player in the
Victorian/Australian Football League,
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
's
Joe Johnson.
The panel's final selection from a shortlist of 35 consisted of 24 players, 19 of whom have represented clubs competing in the
Victorian/Australian Football League, whilst the remaining five were picked for their record in either the
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
or the
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...
.
Graham Farmer
Graham Vivian "Polly" Farmer (10 March 1935 14 August 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the East Perth Football Club and West Perth Football Club in th ...
was named as the team's captain, while
Barry Cable
Barry Thomas Cable MBE (born 22 September 1943) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. Considered one of the greatest rovers in the sport's history, he played in 379 premiership games in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) ...
was selected as the team's coach. Eight of the players were still active in the AFL at the time of being selected.
The Team
An
umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
,
Glenn James
Glenn Robert James OAM is a former Australian rules football umpire in the Victorian Football League. James umpired the 1982 and 1984 VFL Grand Finals and is recognised as the only Indigenous Australian to umpire VFL or AFL football.
Early ...
, was also selected.
The selection panel
The Indigenous Team of the Century selection panel consisted of:
*
Patrick Dodson
Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson (born 29 January 1948) is an Australian politician representing Western Australia in the Australian Senate. He is a Yawuru elder from Broome, Western Australia. He has been chairman of the Council for Aboriginal R ...
(AFL Indigenous Foundation board member)
*
Ernie Dingo
Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to:
People
* Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive
* Ernie Adams (disambiguation)
* Ernie Afaganis (born ...
(media personality)
*
Glenn James
Glenn Robert James OAM is a former Australian rules football umpire in the Victorian Football League. James umpired the 1982 and 1984 VFL Grand Finals and is recognised as the only Indigenous Australian to umpire VFL or AFL football.
Early ...
(former umpire)
*
Kevin Sheedy (Essendon Football Club coach)
*
Kevin Sheehan
Kevin Vincent Sheehan OAM (born 1 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer for Geelong and the current Australian Football League (AFL) National Talent and International Manager, a member of the AFL football operations sub-commit ...
(AFL national talent manager)
*
Mike Sheahan
Michael Sheahan (born 4 March 1947) is an Australian journalist who specialises in Australian rules football. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the ''Herald Sun'' for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the ...
(journalist)
*
Michelangelo Rucci
Michelangelo Rucci (born 10 November 1963) is an Australian sports journalist, and writer.
Of Italian descent, Rucci grew up in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, and graduated from Woodville High School. He is a sports writer in ...
(journalist)
*
Col Hutchinson
Colin Hutchinson (born c. 1943) is a veteran statistician, most notably in the Victorian/Australian Football League in the sport of Australian rules football. He was the AFL's official historian from the 1990s until around 2005.
A part of the AF ...
(AFL historian)
Similar teams
The AFL announced its
Team of the Century
In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 ...
in 1996, which also featured
Graham Farmer
Graham Vivian "Polly" Farmer (10 March 1935 14 August 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the East Perth Football Club and West Perth Football Club in th ...
in the lead ruck position. Other ethnic based teams such as the
Greek Team of the Century
The Greek Team of the Century was a representative team chosen in 2004 in the sport of Australian rules football.
Anthony Koutoufides and Peter Daicos were named vice-captains, Lou Richards was captain. The criterion for selection was that any Gr ...
and
Italian Team of the Century
The Victorian Football League-Australian Football League (VFL/AFL) Italian Team of the Century was announced in June 2007. It recognises the role of Italian Australian players in the sport.
Players and/or at least one of the player's parents or ...
have also been announced. Many individual clubs have also named teams of the century, with
South Fremantle Football Club
South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...
announcing their own Indigenous Team of the Century in July 2009. The
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
announced their Indigenous Team of the Century in 2008.
[Heming, Wayne (9 August 2008]
Indigenous NRL team named
/ref>
See also
* Dreamtime at the 'G
The Dreamtime at the 'G is an annual Australian rules football match between Australian Football League clubs and .
Since the 2007 season the match has been held annually on the Saturday night of the AFL's "Indigenous Round", also known as th ...
* 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) is an Australian rules football team composed of players that identify as Indigenous Australian or ...
References
{{AFL Indigenous Team of the Century
Australian Football League awards
Australian rules football awards
Australian rules football representative teams
Indigenous Australian sport