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Hawthorn brought a taste of its premiership success to the Top End, with the Premiership Cup visiting a local high school on Tuesday.
Fan favourites Cyril Rioli and Jed Anderson joined Player Welfare and Development Manager Jason Burt in Darwin.
For Anderson, it was a return to his roots as he paid a visit to his old school in Darwin.
The 19-year-old Hawk spoke with students at the Clontarf Academy at Casuarina Senior College, the school he completed year 12 at in 2011.
The Hawthorn rising star was one of 27 Indigenous male students that graduated Year 12, in what is still the largest group of indigenous males in Australian schooling history for a single year.
The Territorian offered inspiration to the current students at Casuarina Senior College by detailing his journey.
After spending the previous year in Sydney with the Greater Western Sydney team in the TAC Cup, Anderson’s schooling suffered as a result and he had to work hard in his final year.
“I had to sacrifice the little things like going out on the weekend with my mates.
“I still had time to do the things I enjoyed, like fishing and goose shooting, but there was plenty of hard work involved,” Anderson said.
He credited the Clontarf Foundation and its program at Casuarina Senior College for helping him with his studies.
“The Clontarf program helped me out a lot and gave me a place where I could just chill out and get my work done.”
The Clontarf Foundation originated in 2000 and it aims to improve the education, life-skills and self-esteem of young Indigenous boys.
It originated as a football program that linked school participation and academic achievement and was founded by inaugural Fremantle Dockers coach Gerard Neesham.
Some Indigenous students face many barriers in their personal lives during their schooling and programs like Clontarf help keep these kids in the school system for longer.
Jason Burt stressed the importance of passing school and getting a quality education. He mentioned that achieving a year 12 graduation certificate sets you up in the AFL system.
“There’s not too many players at all at Hawthorn that haven’t completed year 12.
“Probably the most notable one would be Luke Hodge but in saying that he has finished a diploma of management,” Burt told the students.
Burt said many of the Hawks players were undertaking tertiary studies and said continuing education in tandem with an AFL career was a smart thing to do.
But not all of the visit was about schooling. There was plenty of time for football banter and plans for the upcoming season.
“We are going to South Africa in December to visit a few universities with really good training facilities.
“It’s not altitude, well Johannesburg is and we’ll go there for two or three days and it should be a good bonding experience for the group,” Burt said.
The Clontarf students were also given the opportunity to ask Anderson and Rioli a number of football-related question.
There were questions such as ‘who is your toughest opponent’, ‘were you nervous before your first game’ and ‘what is it like to finally beat Geelong?’
Anderson also expressed his desire to improve on his games tally in 2014 and attack pre-season head on.
The obvious talking point surrounded the departure of spearhead Lance Franklin.
“It is pretty shattering to lose Buddy to a rival side but we have a lot of faith in our team and in our list,” said a confident Rioli.
“We have a lot of depth and it means a young player will get an opportunity now.
“We probably played better without Buddy,” he joked.
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