Tambling rapt to be 'home'
By Emma Quayle
The Age
Darwin
February 5, 2005
When Richard Tambling was drafted late last year, he could hardly wait to move from his Darwin home to Melbourne.
The Richmond recruit is still enamoured, if occasionally still overwhelmed, by his new, southern city. But visiting Jabiru, the small mining town on the edge of Kakadu National Park, where he spent three of his teenager years, Tambling was happy enough to be home.
The 18-year-old was greeted at the end of his half-hour flight from Darwin by his grandmother, and an uncle drove him, Andrew Krakouer and Peter Burgoyne to the local area school, to promote tonight's Indigenous All-Stars game and give the assembled kids some tips.
There, Tambling ran into an aunty, slung a couple of young cousins over his shoulder, and remembered the time he spent running around the local oval on his own, getting ready for the AFL career he always planned to have.
Tambling, whose family hails originally from a community just outside Darwin, lived with relatives in Jabiru and moved back to the city when he reached year 10 at school.
"I just used to run around the oval, every day. I'd run around there all the time, just by myself or with my cousin," Tambling said.
"We'd take it really seriously, like we were training ourselves, and then every weekend, we'd go into Darwin together and play footy.
"It was a good few years out here. It's a pretty peaceful place. It's good to come back and get to see everyone."
Still a couple of months out from what he hopes is his debut senior season, simply "one minute" of match time against the Western Bulldogs at Marrara Oval tonight would make Tambling glad he headed home for the weekend. He is likely to get much more than that, with Carlton youngster Andrew Walker the latest to join a long list of sidelined All-Stars, including captain Darryl White, Andrew McLeod, Xavier Clarke, Graham Johncock and Burgoyne.
Coach Michael McLean, who got his squad together for its first and only training run at Marrara last night, planned to draft a couple of local players into the team, which will still include the likes Des Headland, Shaun Burgoyne, Daniel Wells, Daniel Motlop, Aaron Davey, Matthew Whelan and replacement captain Chris Johnson.
Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade plans to include about 30 players in his own team, including midfield recruit Ryan Griffen and Tim Walsh, the club's untried first selection from the 2002 draft. Scott West (fractured finger) and Shane Birss (knee) were excused from this week's Darwin trip to recover from their injuries. Midfielder Nathan Eagleton has had a back spasm and will not play.
Tambling, who has done little but eat, sleep and train his way through the first few months of his first pre-season, said tonight's game posed another challenge: remembering everyone's names.
"I told myself I have to remember every single person's nickname, so I'll be disappointed if I don't do that. I want to know them all by the start of the game," he said.
"I'm really excited about it. I used to watch all these guys on the TV and think that I wanted to be like them. To actually get to play with them and kick the ball to them is amazing."
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2005/02/04/1107476802302.html
