Clayton McCartney with Boomerangs coach and former Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod.
By Justin Robertson
DANDENONG High student Clayton McCartney was proud as punch when he ran onto the field for the first time during a week-long football tour in Tonga last month.
As part of the Flying Boomerangs – a personal development and leadership program for indigenous Australian football players 14 -15 years of age – McCartney was selected, along with his cousin Jay Kennedy-Harris from Endeavour Hills, to play against other representative teams from different parts of the pacific.
“It was awesome, it was such a great experience,” McCartney said. “I loved meeting new people and eating new foods, like pig – it was the only thing we ate that they cooked for us.”
The two boys played two matches and won the first game by 140 points against the under-15 side from Oceania and lost the second match against the under-18 South Pacific team in a much closer affair by four goals.
“There was a lot of talent up there, a lot of AFL scouts too,” he said. “Not everyone has the experience to be coached by Andrew McLeod and play international football – so that was awesome.”
Playing with team captain, his cousin Jay, McCartney said it was comforting to have a close relative with him on the tour.
“It was good to have him there, especially because it was someone I could talk to alone about things that were personal,” he said. “We push each other on the track and we look up to each other and it was great that everyone got to look up to him as captain.”
The Boomerangs jumper the team wore had the Aboriginal flag colours with a golden boomerang across the waist and McCartney said it was a great honour to play in that strip.
Recently retired Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod coached the squad and McCartney said he had a smart football brain and was a good bloke to play footy for.
Clayton and Jay, both 15, were selected for the squad after attending the AFL Kick-Start camp in Melbourne in August.
“We were surprised to get into the Victorian team to be honest, there was a lot of talent at that in that camp,” he said. “There was only eight selected and we were two of them – from about 20 players.”
McCartney moved to Dandenong from New South Wales when he was six and now calls Cranbourne home, where he enjoys playing football for the Cranbourne Football Club.
He is also training with the Dandenong Stingrays and Vic Country and said this year he was hoping to “up” his game.
“It’s definitely something I want to pursue as a career, but I also want to keep having fun – to keep being passionate about it. Hopefully I do well and get looked at over the next couple of years.”
