A little bit more about it in the Fairfax report....Brendon Gale joined his club in Darwin on Friday to announce a joint initiative with the NT government to reward outstanding students from Tiwi College on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin.
The Maurice Rioli scholarship will each year enable three young men, who have completed a certificate in sport and recreation and have a strong attendance record, to join Richmond in Melbourne for a week of training and coaching.
"Throughout his life Maurice worked tirelessly to improve the lives of indigenous Territorians, particularly inspiring young men on the Tiwi Islands to embrace football and education," acting NT chief minister Delia Lawrie said.
Rioli's brother Sebastian told reporters it would be good for aspiring athletes to go away for a week to see what it really takes to become an AFL footballer.
He said it was often difficult for young Aboriginal men, like Taylor, to leave their family and move interstate.
"It's important that when they go down to Melbourne for the week that they see how hard it is.
"It's fine having the ideal `I want to be a league footballer', but the pressures of being a player, the pressures of being away from family - it's very difficult unless you've prepared yourself.
"If you look at a bloke like (Melbourne forward) Liam Jurrah, who's come from one of the communities ... he's worked hard at staying down there."
Rioli said he hoped the scholarship would result in more indigenous players succeeding in the AFL in the mould of Maurice Rioli and Essendon great Michael Long.
"These guys have gone through the hardship, they've stayed down there, they've put in the yards," Sebastian Rioli said.
"And our boys need to realise that that's what makes a league footballer."
Maurice Rioli, who played 118 games for Richmond and spent almost ten years working as an NT politician, was just 53 years old when he collapsed and died from a heart attack in Darwin in December last year.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/tigers-confident-taylor-will-return-to-afl-20110527-1f89w.html
