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Melbourne forward Liam Jurrah intends to keep playing in the AFL, saying he wants to make his family proud.
The 23-year-old is set to return to the club on Monday after an Alice Springs court ordered him back to Victoria last Friday as a condition of his bail.
“I wouldn’t have given up on my dream, just keep doing what I’m doing right now – just keep training and stick to the routine at the club,” Jurrah said on the new Fox Sports program, Eddie McGuire Tonight.
“It’s tough at the moment … I want to keep going, keep my dream.
“It’s really important, footy is more important than anything.
“For me, family comes first, but at the moment I want to make my family proud just playing footy.”
It is the first time Jurrah has spoken pubicly since last week’s dramas.
Jurrah was interviewed sitting between his mother and his grandmother, who arrived in Melbourne on Sunday.
He was ordered back to Victoria two days ago after he was charged over an alleged machete attack.
He is to reappear in court on May 17 on charges of unlawfully causing serious harm and being armed with an offensive weapon at night.
Jurrah is an initiated member of the Warlpiri people who live at Yuendumu, a community about 300km northwest of Alice Springs.
The community is torn by a family feud that has raged for two years.
Jurrah must not return to the NT except to appear in court.
He also must not contact any relatives nominated as a witness by the prosecution.
Melbourne club officials have vowed to stand by the indigenous player despite the star forward’s plight.
The club granted him personal leave last Monday so he could return to Central Australia after the death of his partner’s sister.
Jurrah was one of two 23-year-old men and a woman who were arrested last Wednesday night following an incident in Alice Springs where a 35-year-old man was left with head injuries.
Jurrah has had an interrupted pre-season because of a wrist injury and even before last week’s troubles, he was not going to be ready for the start of the AFL season.
Former Collingwood player Rupert Butheras, a friend of Jurrah’s, said the massive changes to the Melbourne football department in the off-season might have made it tougher for the player.
Betheras said Dean Bailey, who was sacked as Melbourne coach last year, had supported Jurrah.
“We maybe should have read that situation, got in and kept that support network going,” Betheras said.
“I don’t want to be patronising and say we need to do everything for Liam … but we do have to get in there and make it work.”
Jurrah’s biographer Bruce Hearn-MacKinnon, who flew to Alice Springs on Friday to support him, is confident the player will cope.
“He’s fine – he has a remarkable resilience and … he has an ability to deal with things,” Hearn-MacKinnon said.
“Unfortunately, people from a lot of remote communities are dealing with crises as part of life.
“But he’s bouncing back and he’s going to be fine, he’ll come through it.
“Liam is so unique, coming from such a remote community … I often say it’s almost like he’s come from another planet.”
Grandmother Cecily Granites said she and Jurrah’s mother had travelled to Melbourne to support Jurrah.
“We just want to come and spend time with Liam, support Liam and I think it’s really important that family have to come first” she said.
She added that they were proud of Jurrah’s AFL career.
“This is a really good pathway for him,” she said.
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