The Australian First People's Koori Knockout Was A Triumph Of Culture, Resilience And Hard-As Rugby League

There was only one way to stop Josh Ado-Carr from that close to the line and his opposite number didn't think twice about it. As the former-Wests Tiger-soon-to-be Melbourne Storm NRL star attempted to ground it over the line to score the Redfern All Blacks' first try in the Koori Knockout grand final, a forearm came at him the other way. It knocked him senseless, causing him to lose the ball over the line and slump lifeless to the ground. The game was only two minutes old, but the Newcastle All Blacks had signalled their intention. They were gonna beat the Redfern All Blacks in this year's knockout any way they could.

The Koori Knockout is the biggest corroboree (gathering) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. Between 30 and 35 000 First Australians make the trip to the carnival from around the state of NSW, along with parts of Victoria and Queensland. Of the 35 000 around 3500 players take part.

Mobs from Byron Bay, Grafton, Kempsey, Bourke, Walgett, Dubbo, Cabbage Tree Island, south Sydney and elsewhere congregate for the four day celebration of Indigenous culture, tradition and rugby league, marking one of the most important cultural events in the country.

"It is the biggest cultural gathering on the globe for indigenous people," former Newcastle Knights NRL star turned NITV commentator, Owen Craigie, tells Vice Sports.

"It's a bit like the modern day corroboree where all your family and friends and tribes and nations come here and represent the people in your community and your tribe, which is a good thing," he said.

The event was founded in 1971 as a response to black football players being "shunned" from both the sport as well as many football grounds.

"The Knockout is a time for us [Aboriginal people] to express our particular skills in the world of rugby league, a world that shunned us for many many years," Redfern rugby league legend, Lyall Munro told NITV.

"We couldn't play their [white Australians] game on their grounds, so we played it on our grounds and from our grounds came those who ended up playing for their respective A-grade sides. A lot of us went to play for the NRL, the NSW State of Origin and a lot of us went on to play for Australia," he says.

Today Aboriginal footballers make up many of the most celebrated figures in the game, among them Queensland and Australia Test greats, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis, Sam Thaiday, Cronulla grand final winner, Ben Barba and countless others past and present. Incredibly, despite making up just 3% of Australia's total population Aboriginal footballers make up 12% of the National Rugby League's playing list.

Having won last year's Koori Knockout, the Redfern All Blacks chose the location for this year's event, the iconic Leichardt Oval. Redfern, where I live, and which has long been known as a black suburb, was abuzz in the lead up to the event as mobs from around the country arrived to stay with relatives. At dusk on Friday the streets filled with the ancient rhythms of the didjeridoo, as part of a traditional dance and smoke ceremony, along with a few dreamtime stories and pronunciation lessons from a local elder.

By Monday the tournament had boiled down to two teams, the same two teams that had contested the last three finals: the Redfern All Blacks, from inner-city Sydney, and the Newcastle All Blacks, from a city two hours north.

The rivalry had become a bitter one. Just ask Josh Ado-Carr. He shook off the initial forearm to the head and remained on the field but wore several more during the opening stages as the largely bush-league Newcastle outfit attempted to leave their mark on the high profile, highly paid NRL star.

It's one of the biggest drawcards as a spectator: watching some of the biggest names in rugby league step onto the field alongside cousins, uncles and brothers, and battle it out for family and mob pride. How the beer-drinking, ciggie-smoking amateur fares against professional athletes with hundreds of thousands of dollars in training investment behind them is one of the great spectacles of the Koori Knockout. One thing is for sure, this is one arena where it doesn't pay to be on NRL money. The bigger the name, the more 'special' the treatment.

Redfern unquestionably held the star power with current NRL and Super 15 (rugby union) players Josh Ado-Carr (Melbourne Storm), Jonathan Wright (New Zealand Warriors), Allwood (New Zealand Warriors) Travis Robinson (Newtown Jets/Melbourne Storm), and Reece Robinson (NSW Waratahs), alongside ex-legends Nathan Merritt (South Sydney Rabbitohs/NSW origin) and Brendan Williams (Randwick Rugby Union).

Newcastle had just one NRL player, but he was exactly the kind of guy you don't want to be running into in a park football hit out such as this; the 115 kilo human wrecking ball, Leilani Latu. He nearly broke someone in half to open the game, after they took an inside ball, and darted back towards the ruck. The game was stopped as he was carried off the field.

With Latu lurking around the ruck it was clear Redfern would have to win this on the fringes.

Newcastle for their part were gonna roll up the sleeves and apply the traditional strategy of any under-gunned rugby league team: bash 'em. Swinging arms, blindside shoulders and plenty of niggle in the ruck would either intimidate Redfern's big names or suck 'em into a scrap that would allow the grizzled bush-league hard-heads to come into their own.

For every big name First Australian NRL player, there are half a dozen who either made the grade but couldn't keep up the consistency or had their dream shredded by factors beyond their control.

With adults of Aboriginal heritage 13 times more likely to end up incarcerated than white Australians and juveniles 24 times, there's no shortage of obstacles to overcome. Redfern's star NRL player, Josh Ado-Carr doesn't need telling. His signature post-try celebration for the Wests Tigers, in which he covers his face with his hand, is meant to represent his "four or five" uncles currently incarcerated around the state.

Newcastle's legendary trio of Briggs brothers are on the other side of this equation. Halfback Scott Briggs spent time at a handful of NRL clubs (Newcastle Knights, Parramatta Eels, Canberra Raiders) but ultimately was also dogged by his off-field dramas, according to Owen Craigie. He is the heart and soul of the Newcastle All Blacks team but when he throws an intercept pass just as Newcastle are mounting their comeback the game is lost.

Redfern cruise to an easy victory bringing the Koori Knockout trophy back to The Block for the third year running (meaning Sydney will once again host the tournament in 2017). But the suburb's checkered past with police and was not far from the surface.

"It is great, it is absolutely fantastic for the community. It's put us on the map for positive things, not negative anymore," explained Redfern's Brendan 'Tinga' Williams, named Best Forward in the final, as well as Best and Fairest across the Knockout.

In the team was a family member of TJ Hickey, the 17 year old boy who was infamously knocked from his bike during an aggressive police pursuit in 2004, impaling him on a fence and killing him; which would then prove the catalyst for the 2004 Redfern riots. There are marches every year to commemorate his death and demand justice (the police involved were not charged) but the Redfern community moves on, and the All Blacks are a big part of why that's possible. .

"We've got a great group of young blokes coming through,mate, it's fantastic. We're a great community at Redfern now. We're rebuilding everything, it's all positive for our kids' generation," said 'Tinga' Williams, adding of this year's rugby league corroboree:

"It's fantastic just to meet different mobs and different communities throughout this knockout. You don't realise you got mob, you got cousins, relo's in every town. But it's great to get back to one. We're all one mob," he said.