The Rirratjingu Football Program will proudly unveil their first female participant with 14 year old Kaya Mununggurr flying to Darwin this weekend to play Under 15 Youth Girls for Darwin Buffaloes on Sunday morning at TIO Stadium. Mununggurr has come off a stellar Gove AFL Womens season where she captained Djarrak Football Club to the inaugural Gove AFLW Premiership. The youngster has developed away from the field with an improvement in school attendance highlighting the value of Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporations vision to use Australian Football as a vehicle.
Program Senior Coach Hayden Rickard was impressed with the development of Mununggurr to date. He said "She's a fearless player with a willingness to put her body over the ball in contests. A rough stone that the program would like to polish in the coming years. We have some work ahead developing her foot and hand skills but she is really coachable and dedicated to her craft work. He added "Away from the field we are getting positive feedback from the school. It shows that having our young girls around some really quality women in our Djarrak FC Women's program has really rubbed off. Our female players who are employed around community, rangers and health professionals are a great example to the young girls coming through".
Djarrak Football Club Women's Manager Araluen Maymuru will mentor Mununggurr during her transition to NTFL Football.
In Division 1, Justin Talal will join the program this week. The outside midfielder has developed his game through the Gove AFL Season and will look to get up to speed quickly with the Darwin style of football when the Buffaloes take on rivals St Marys Football Club late Saturday night. Division 1 comes off a hard fought loss last week and will look to rebound against last years Division 1 Finalist.
Premier League player Lee Mununggurr will look to improve on a fine Round 1 display as the League side battles traditional rivals St Marys FC at 4pm on TIO Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Matt Campbell coached Buffaloes showed an edge in fitness last week and will look to be cleaner with their disposal to ensure an advantage on the outside running game the club is renowned for. St Marys come off a loss against traditional fast starter Nightcliff Football Club and pundits await to see what personnel changes the Green Machine will implement this week.
Travel Party: Premier League - Lee Mununggurr, Division 1 - Justin Talal, Under 15 Youth Girls - Kaya Mununggurr.
The Rirratjingu Football Program proudly fly Airnorth. Airnorth is now the major aviation operator in Northern Australia. The company operates over 300 scheduled RPT and charter departures weekly, servicing over 20 destinations across four countries.