It's football and netball Dreamtime in Ballarat for young Aboriginals

By Gavin McGrath
Updated November 2 2012 - 3:04pm, first published September 30 2010 - 2:50pm
BIG: Ballarat Eels team manager Chris Rafferty, Jordan Kickett (Gina Dreamteam Eels), Daniel Clarke (Ballarat Eels), and Aaron Clark (WestVic Eels) look forward to the VAYSAR Football Netball Carnival in Ballarat this weekend.
BIG: Ballarat Eels team manager Chris Rafferty, Jordan Kickett (Gina Dreamteam Eels), Daniel Clarke (Ballarat Eels), and Aaron Clark (WestVic Eels) look forward to the VAYSAR Football Netball Carnival in Ballarat this weekend.

IT HAS been called the biggest Aboriginal sporting event in the state.Ballarat hosts the Victorian Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation Senior Football Netball Carnival this weekend, for the first time since 1998.There will be 21 football teams and 32 netball teams competing in a lightning premiership format at Eureka Stadium, Marty Busch Reserve, Russell Square and the Ballarat Netball Centre at Llanberris Reserve.Carnival co-ordinator Tony Lovett said the VAYSAR football and netball carnival had grown into one of the Aboriginal community's most significant annual events.''The carnival has been going for 30 years and is the biggest Aboriginal sporting event in Victoria,'' Lovett said. ''On field there are some fierce rivalries. Teams are family and community based. Off field it is a real social event focusing on people enjoying themselves. It is not just about the sport.''We'd hope the broader community would like to come and have a look. It will be an exciting brand of footy and netball, and entry is free.'' Ballarat will be represented in the footy by the WestVic Eels with former North Ballarat City coach Aaron Clark at the helm in division one, and the Ballarat Eels in division two.Sebastopol's Aiden and Marcus Kickett, and Rueben Hayden, are playing for ''Brother Boys'', a team of Western Australian expats now living in Victoria, while former North Ballarat Rooster Brett Goodes will line up for the Wimmera Eagles. Representing Ballarat in netball are the Gina Dreamteam Eels, coached by Belinda Kickett and named in honour of Gina Kickett who died two years ago.

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