The annual Cairns City Lions v North Cairns clash at Holloways Beach is one he doesn’t like to miss, having grown up in Cairns playing footy his whole life.
Now with the Lions, Mooka started playing with Manunda Hawks as an eight year old and has also spent time in Tigers colours.
The Tigers will have 12 indigenous players in tomorrow’s clash and the Lions only a few less in what will be a perfect opportunity to display what they bring to the game.
Both sides will wear one-off, specially designed guernseys and a big crowd is expected for the stand-alone Sunday fixture.
And after the Indigenous/South Pacific’s exhilarating win against the Cairns All Stars a few weeks ago, they are pumped to put on a show again.
“In that All Stars game Rick (coach Rick Hanlon) told us to bring our mob and so we all did,” Mooka said.
“It’s good to see; it’s something for them to look forward to every year as well instead of just the grand final and I wasn’t going to miss this game myself.
“I grew up watching Michael Long, (Michael) O’Loughlin and Adam Goodes and I got to hang out with them and I just thought ‘Wow’.”
The Tigers will fly in Tiwi Island stars Patrick Heenan and Austin Wonaeamirri for the clash, while the Lions have secured the services of Pyramid Power colt Bradwell Dick.
At AFL level, Cairns’ Courtenay Dempsey will play for Essendon in Dreamtime at the G against the Tigers, while Far North product Jarrod Harbrow has established himself as one of the AFL’s best indigenous players at the Suns. Malachi Songoro (Yam Island), Bradley Bond (New Mapoon) and Trevor Caloppe (Weipa) will also play at the MCG in the Rio Tinto Footy Means Business curtain-raiser.
“Having Bradwell playing will only promote him and the club and we are lucky to have a lot of indigenous talent generally thanks to the work done in the Cape and Yarrabah,” said Lions coach John Tootell.
“I know for our club it’s a pretty big thing and a lot of effort goes into it.”
Tigers coach Dave Arnfield has been buoyed by the attitude of his men, still winless this season, ahead of the special game.
“They all want to play, it’s a big game for the club,” he said.
“You only had to see how much it meant to them in that All Stars game to know what it will all be about again this weekend.”
Article Courtesy of Murray Wenzel The Cairns Post
Last Modified on 02/06/2015 13:18