It was wonderful to see Kurtley Beale dancing at the unveiling of the Wallabies’ Indigenous jersey in Redfern on Monday. Beale’s impromptu expression of pride in his Aboriginality was certainly an uplifting moment in an otherwise bleak year for Australian rugby.
But it also underlined the appalling lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in the Wallabies. Only 14 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players – Beale, Gary Ella, Glen Ella, Mark Ella, Anthony Fainga’a, Saia Fainga’a, Matt Hodgson, Lloyd McDermott, Cecil Ramalli, Wendell Sailor, Timana Tahu, Andrew Walker, Lloyd Walker and Jim Williams – have played Test rugby for Australia.
That does not even make up a starting team and compares unfavourably with the high representation of Indigenous players in the AFL and rugby league.
In contrast, the AFL celebrates its Indigenous players with a themed round and its clubs actively recruit Indigenous talent. There are currently 80 Indigenous players across the 18 AFL teams. Some of the greatest names in the game’s history have been Aboriginal players: Graham “Polly” Farmer, Maurice Rioli, Michael Long, Nicky Winmar, Adam Goodes and Buddy Franklin.
The numbers are similar in rugby league, where many of the best players have been of Indigenous heritage, such as Arthur Beetson, Mal Meninga and Jonathan Thurston. On the contrary, and like rugby, soccer has had a low Aboriginal representation.
But why are there so few Aboriginal rugby union players? And how can rugby attract this largely untapped reservoir of talent? While you can never discount racial prejudice as a factor in the past, rugby’s status as an amateur sport was possibly the main reason there were so few Aboriginal Wallabies prior to 1996 – just Ramalli, McDermott, the Ellas and Lloyd Walker.
Amateur rugby was a game for the middle and upper classes, full of doctors and lawyers, while professional rugby league became the game for the working class. You do not have to be a sociologist to note that Indigenous players would have been overcoming a significant socio-economic barrier.
If class structures were one of the main barriers to Indigenous Australians playing for the Wallabies in the amateur era, why has the situation not improved that much since the game went professional?
Of the eight Indigenous players who have played for the Wallabies in the professional era, six attended private schools, including Sailor, who finished his schooling at St Patrick’s College in Mackay. Only Timana Tahu and Andrew Walker went to state high schools.
This suggests that rugby is still the preserve of the “Rah Rahs.” Born and raised in working-class western Sydney, it is doubtful Beale would ever have become a Wallaby if he had not received a scholarship to attend St Joseph’s College in Sydney.
Australian rugby’s colour problem is complicated. About half of the current Wallabies squad is of Pacific Islander heritage. But Beale is the only Indigenous player and history shows this is not an outlier era.
To be sure, the Lloyd McDermott Foundation does good work in fostering Aboriginal rugby talent, but clearly much more needs to be done. Rightly or wrongly, rugby has an image problem. To working class and disadvantaged kids it seems exclusive, a game for toffs. This is a perception that needs to change.
I often wonder if the Ella brothers would have continued playing rugby after they left school if not for the fact they were mentored by a sympathetic coach in Geoff Mould at Matraville High, and joined an egalitarian club like Randwick.
The Ella twins were also outstanding schoolboy cricketers, but did not pursue that game after their school years because they did not feel comfortable in that environment. This is the key. Indigenous players must feel welcome or they will not turn up. The ARU has to put out the welcome mat if it wants to attract more talented Indigenous players.
In AFL and rugby league, Indigenous players have for many teams provided a point of difference, bringing unique skills and perspectives that have changed the way those two games are played. Similarly, the Ellas had a profound influence on Australian rugby with their attacking style of play.
How do the Wallabies manage to beat the All Blacks? Perhaps one answer lies in drawing from the long-neglected resources of Indigenous Australia.
