Malcolm Rosas Jr (born 27 June 2001) is a professional

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 ...

er who plays for the

Gold Coast Football Club The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

Early life

Rosas Jr was born and raised in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

. His mother is of

Indigenous Australian 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 ...

descent from the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

( Ngalakgan and

Rembarrnga The Rembarrnga people, also spelt Rembarunga and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language The Rembarrnga language Rembarrnga (Rembarunga) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the ...

) and his father is of

South Sea Islander South Sea Islanders are the Australian descendants of Pacific Islanders from more than 80 islandsincluding the Oceanian archipelagoes of the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Gilbert Islands and New Irelandwho were kidnappe ...

descent from

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Rosas Jr's grandfather,

Bill Dempsey William Brian Dempsey Member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 17 March 1942) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Darwin Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) and the West Perth Footba ...

, is a 2022 Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee, an inaugural Hall of Fame inductee in both the WAFL and

AFL Northern Territory AFL Northern Territory is the governing body for Australian rules football in the Northern Territory of Australia. It supervises multiple leagues, but is mainly concerned with the co-ordination of the Northern Territory Football League. Th ...

as well as being named in the

Indigenous Team of the Century The Indigenous Team of the Century (Australian rules football) 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 eth ...

in 2005. Rosas Jr grew up playing Australian rules football,

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

at high levels but eventually chose to focus on football in his mid-teenage years. He played all his junior football for the

Darwin Buffaloes The Darwin Football Club, nicknamed, Buffaloes, is an Australian rules football club, playing in the Northern Territory Football League. It is the third oldest football club in the Northern Territory. Darwin has won the second most premierships ...

in the NTFL and signed to play senior football for the NT Thunder in the NEAFL in his final year of junior football in 2019. He was the first player signed by the

Gold Coast Suns Academy The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

program via their Darwin Academy, signing a 2 year deal until 2021.

AFL career

In October 2019, Rosas Jr was drafted to the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

via their academy pre-selection access. He made his AFL debut at 19 years of age in round 9, 2021 against the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

QClash The QClash is the name given to the Australian rules football rivalry match between the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns, who both participate in the Australian Football League (AFL). The first QClash was held in 2011, with Gold Coast winning ...

20 at

Metricon Stadium Carrara Stadium (known commercially as Metricon Stadium) is a stadium on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara. The stadium is primarily used for Australian rules football, serving as the home ground of th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosas, Malcolm 2001 births Living people Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Australian rules footballers from the Northern Territory Northern Territory Football Club players Gold Coast Football Club players Australian rules football players from Darwin, Northern Territory