The indigenous player, whose brother Jarrod was vice-captain of this year’s AFL Indigenous All Stars team, has promised to do his own celebration dance at Holloways Beach in a show of solidarity.
Goodes has been the target of constant booing that the AFL has acknowledged is racially motivated, with other AFL teams and indigenous players in other sporting codes jumping to Goodes’ defence this week.
“I’ll do a little dance for sure; it’s about sending a message to the community that it’s OK to express who you are and your culture,” he said.
“I’ll shake a leg if I kick a goal; we should be celebrating the culture.”
Harbrow is one of many indigenous players in the AFL Cairns competition and while he is adamant that racism still exists, he says it is not as publicly accepted or obvious at is once was.
“It’s definitely still everywhere, especially in Cairns,” he said.
“But with such a high indigenous population up here you’d be pretty silly to express it publicly because we are the majority.
“All indigenous groups are united and it’s a real community and there’s no better example than that through footy.”
Harbrow played for the Indigenous/South Pacific side that beat the Cairns All Stars in one of the season highlights earlier this year.
“That was amazing and I can tell you there was plenty of dancing going on after that win,” he said.
Harbrow is returning from a back injury against the team he coached and played for last year.
The Lions, having dropped three games out of the top four, are playing for pride but it is a contest the Cutters can’t afford to take lightly given the logjam in the top four.
Souths and Saints are separated by only goal difference in second, while Centrals are two wins adrift in fourth.
Article Courtesy of Murray Wenzel The Cairns Post
Last Modified on 31/07/2015 10:55