Search NIT Online
 

  
  NIT Shop

  Subscriptions
  Blog  
  Breaking News

  News

  Opinion
  The Arts
  Classroom

  Business
  Community
  Sport
  Travel
  ePostcard
  Links
  Back Issues
  Photo Gallery
  About Us
  Jobs   Downloads  

  Issue 194








* A NOTE TO OUR ONLINE READERS:

The multi-award winning National Indigenous Times is an independent newspaper and receives no government funding whatsoever. Our print edition is published every fortnight, but because of the public interest nature of our reporting, we ensure all of our stories are available online at no cost. Thus, we rely entirely on advertising and subscriptions to survive, and hope you'll consider subscribing to NIT's print edition to help us continue our work, or even just browse our Online Shop.

  News

 

ANSL Chairman Michael Anderson at the recent opening round of the 2008 season in Moree.

Bus companies refuse Aboriginal footballers: Anderson
Issue 151 - 17 Apr 2008

By Chris Munro

RUGBY LEAGUE, May 1, 2008: Creating more headaches for the grass roots Aboriginal Nations Super League (ANSL), several local bus companies in the far north west of NSW have allegedly refused to hire-out transport to any league footballers associated with the ANSL, according to the competition's chairman Michael Anderson.

"What in the world is going on? All we are trying to do is play football, not organising a major revolution to take control of the country or the outback," Anderson said.

Vice Chairman of the ANSL and former bush football great Doug McGrady also questioned whether the sudden about-turn from the transport companies had something to do with the fact most ANSL footballers are Aboriginal.

Not having adequate transport for a sizeable chunk of the expansive competition is the latest hurdle for the community organisation, which is entering its second year of operation.

The ANSL last year filled a void in organised rugby league throughout the region, which had been neglected since the collapse of Group 16 in the early 1990s.

Local shire councils in the region have also been accused by the rebel league of discrimination for hindering access to local ovals, resulting in the cancellation of several of this year's opening rounds.

According to members of the ANSL, the rival Country Rugby League (CRL) competition booked ovals around the region for the entire year to ensure the ANSL would be unable to stage a game.

Anderson says this latest roadblock will force the Aboriginal community to purchase its own transport to ferry players between towns, where travel times routinely stretch beyond four hours.

"It seems that we are going to now raise our money to buy our own buses for our people," he said.

"This way we will show that we are and can be totally independent if this is what they want."

Both McGrady and Anderson said that the door to negotiation with the CRL was still ajar.

"We hope that in this, the Centenary Year of rugby league, we can set aside differences and let the game grow in the manner that it should," McGrady said.







Printer Friendly Version  Email Story to a FriendSubmit Letter to Editor

 

  More News

Commonwealth strikes deal to takeover Ilpeye Ilpeye
Greens, opposition slam Rudd for delayed report card
Naden still on the run as the Scholes family longs for justice
Wild Rivers more important than climate change: Macdonald
Indigenous All Stars recruited to help fight truancy
Aboriginal victims to sue British over nuclear tests
Scholarships to close soon
Walden family handed Report
My School website proves popular
Emergency funds given in the wake of outback "loan shark"
ailing funds better spent on community programs: report
Investigation into death in custody
Native title changes "water down rights"
Campaign launched to warn young people of STIs
Long wait on claims: expert
Sarra calls for conversation on date change
French courts the idea of an Indigenous judge
Survival Day festival praised
Rudd's nephew joins Oz day protest in KKK outfit
Keneally family split over Oz Day, flag and anthem
Red Cross to start successful RespectED program
Rudd announces fever funding
Bran Nue Dae pulling in the crowds; makes $2.6 million
Black arm band to go to Olympics
Decline in child vaccination rates putting us at risk: doc
WORLD: Aboriginal groups divided over cost of Winter Olympics
WORLD: Morales sworn in for second term
WORLD: Harawira blames media for uproar
WORLD: Indigenous leader attacked
WORLD: First Yanomami HIV case confirmed