The Northern Territory (NT) had an exciting and rewarding campaign during the 2018 National Inclusion Carnival, in only their second year being involved.
The week-long carnival in was held in Tasmania – a bit chillier than what the Territory boys were used to – and this year's carnival was made up of eight teams: Northern Territory, NSW/ACT, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria Country, Victoria Metro and Western Australia.
The NT’s team had doubled in size since 2017, going from six to 14 players, meaning the team only required a couple of top up players from the other states. Two members of the 2018 NT team were Peter Apuatimi (Tiwi Islands) and deaf player Lenny Maymuru (Yirrkala) who had been training in their respective communities before joining the Darwin-based players the day before flying south.
After the official welcoming function, all eight teams participated in the one-day Lighting Carnival in order to divide teams into two divisions. NT won three out of the seven games they played and from there were placed into Division 2.
Over the following three days NT played against the three other Division 2 teams: Western Australia (NT won), Tasmania (NT won) and NWS/ACT (NT lost).
This positioned the NT to come up against Western Australia for the Division 2 final, where NT went down to the black and yellow by 14 points. During the final match the recipient of the NT’s MVP was team captain Jordan Hill. The criteria for the MVP was a player who best upheld the AFL values - play as one team, play fair, play to win and play with passion.
After finals were done and dusted Territorian's, Peter Apuatimi and Byron Mayo, were ecstatic to find out they made the All Australian Inclusion team.
This fantastic initiative has been going from strength to strength and it’s a credit to all those involved. Thanks to Total Recreation as well as the AFL, National Australia Bank, the Department of Sport and Recreation, Deaf Children Australia, YBE and Xavier College (Tiwi) for partnering with AFLNT to assist in helping the boys in getting down to Tasmania.
2018 Inclusion Carnival Results
Lightning Carnival
Game 1 – Victoria Metro 4.3.27 defeated Northern Territory 0.0.0
Game 2 – Queensland 2.1.13 defeated Northern Territory 1.3.9
Game 3 – Victoria Country 3.3.21 defeated Northern Territory 2.0.12
Game 4 – South Australia 3.2.20 defeated Northern Territory 0.0.0
Game 5 – Northern Territory 5.2.32 defeated Western Australia 1.0.6
Game 6 – Northern Territory 3.1.19 defeated Tasmania 0.0.0
Game 7 – Northern Territory 5.2.32 defeated NSW/ACT 1.0.6
Division 2
Day 1 – Northern Territory 2.9.21 defeated Western Australia 2.1.8
Day 2 – Northern Territory 5.7.37 defeated Tasmania 4.1.25
Day 3 – NSW/ACT 7.3.27 defeated Northern Territory 2.5.17
Finals
Western Australia 5.3.33 defeated 3.1.19