News

Mallee Tigers win flag

Fri, 20 Oct 2017 14:08:00

Mildura’s Mallee Tigers Aboriginal football team has broken a 10-year drought by taking out the Division Two premiership at the weekend’s Victorian NAIDOC Football Carnival at Ballarat.

The Tigers defeated the West Vic Eels in the Grand Final on Sunday, 47 points to 33.
Tigers’ coach Nathan Yates said he was elated with the victory.
“It’s been a long time and it’s a pretty big deal for the boys.  I think we’ve won three Premierships over the years, but it’s been a long time since the previous one, so it was an exciting result,” he said.
“It was a fantastic team effort on the day and we had some sensational individual performances in the grand final and across the whole carnival.
“We also had a couple of boys make selection for the State side, which is great.”
Warwick Williams was named Best on the Ground in the Grand Final and also best player overall across the carnival in B Division, making him a certainty for State selection.
Team-mate Nathan Lawson was another standout across the carnival, and also won the callup for State selection. Ryan Andrews was deadly in front of goal, and was the leading goalkicker for the carnival with 11 goals.
Nathan said the Mallee Tigers’ success was due, in part, to the support of sponsors including Mallee District Aboriginal Services, Chemist Warehouse, Intersports, 27 Deakin, Banjos and Coffee Town.
“It was fantastic to have that backing to help offset the costs for players in making the trip to Ballarat,” he said.
Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative and the NAIDOC Sports Committee hosted the 2017 Statewide Koori Football and Netball carnival, Yannanayowoit Dullallally, meaning “Always Proud”.
The smokes, alcohol and drug free carnival has grown into an important platform to promote holistic health and wellbeing among Aboriginal Victorians and brought together 3000 participants from across Victoria.
Eleven teams contested the B Division, including the Mallee Tigers.