Grand Final a chance to think about NRL's off-field efforts
- jimchalmers
- Oct 9, 2015
- 1 min read
First published in the Logan Reporter 9 October 2015.
Last weekend’s NRL Grand Final may have been a disappointment for Broncos supporters like me, but it was a history-making game, regardless.
Sunday’s game was the first grand final in history captained by two indigenous men – Johnathan Thurston co-captaining the Cowboys, and Justin Hodges for the Broncos.
The NRL does some incredible work trying to ‘close the gap’ for indigenous people in Australia and so it was good to see two indigenous men leading and performing at the absolute peak of the sport.
In our own community, NRL’s Former Origin Greats (FOGS) are setting the example as they work with young people to keep them involved in education.
The FOGS Achieving Results Through Indigenous Education (ARTIE) program currently operates out of Marsden State School and Marsden State High.
The ARTIE Academy’s goal is to encourage young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at participating schools in Queensland, to celebrate their successes and provide academic assistance in literacy and numeracy.
Last week I met with Origin Great Gene Miles who shared with me some of the real success stories from the ARTIE program so far.
The students get a lot out of working with some of their sporting heroes, and schools have seen a marked uptick in student attendance as a result.
It’s a fantastic program, and I salute the NRL stars who are giving back to the community by working with our young indigenous kids.
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