Channel flicking the other night we came across this doco.
Being AFL fans, we of course knewof Polly Farmer so we settled down to watch.
He was one of the kids in the stolen generation. He was five when he was taken to a Catholic school with others. Apparently he settled down and got on with studies andplaying footballon his breaks.
Somewhere he aquired a leather boot and wore it on his left kicking foot, this caused him to walk with a limp in later years.
He played local football in a league near Perth. Very few aborginals were playing in the bigger leagues at that time. He played and coached and took the team to win a grandfinal. Polly was married with a couple young kids by then and Geelong offered him a contract for an unheard of amount of money. The club got him a house and a job. Back then, while footy players were paid to play,they still needed a job outside of football.
Polly Farmer was the first aborginal player who was accepted by the fans, the fewbefore him had suffered name calling and shunned by the fans, often not even able to use the same change rooms.
Polly Farmer changed the way that the game has been played as he introduced a different way to ruck the ball which is still used in the modern game.
He won all the medals on iffer throughout his career. When the doco was made, he was 82 and looked as though he had the start of dementia.
They had lots of footage of club games and ceremonies and his daughter talked about her dad and growing up in a football world.
Very interesting doco on part of our history.
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