‘Chip on your shoulder’: players from the country wear a special pride

Essendon -wing player Xavier Duursma says that growing up in the country is building grit and character with afl players, who often have a deep sense of pride where they come from.

Now 24, and after playing 100 games in the end, Duursma said that one of his best Footy memories was still when he was 15 and walked around with his brother Zane, then 10, at Foster Football Netball Club.

“That was fantastic. It was really a cool experience,” Duursma told ABC Sport.

“At that time I didn’t quite understand how cool that was.”

Zane is now playing for North Melbourne, while their sister, Yasmin, 21, plays for Carlton in the Aflw, and the youngest brother Willem, 17, is recommended to go as high as number one in the next national design.

If Willem needs to be selected, the quartet will follow famous Footy families in the Selwoods and Danihers with four brothers and sisters to play the game.

‘Bush to the Burbs’

They are memories of growing up in Foster – with a population of just over 2,000 out of 175 kilometers outside Melbourne – that makes this weekend’s country game so special for Duursma.

“It gives us the opportunity to show what can happen if you work hard as a rural boy and a rural football player,” Duursma said.

“And what you can possibly achieve, if you are going on and you work hard.”

This Saturday the 10th edition of Essendon and Geelong will be of the annual Country Game Clash at the MCG, which wants to recognize the impact of Country Footy and recognize the contribution of regional communities to Australian society.

This year’s theme is “Bush to the Burbs”.

Last year, Participation in Australian Rules Football exceeded more than 520,000Breaking the AFTs of all time registered participation record the year before. There was growth in many markets throughout the country, including regional areas.

Melbourne metropolitan areas still produce the largest amount of aflent talent everywhere in Australia. From 2024, about a third of the players’ output of the competition, measured via player, is estimated value of the Victorian capital.

Apart from the big cities – where Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney are increasingly productive, especially at Academy players – the regions of Gippsland and Shepparton are strong.

Over the years, Tasmania has also been home to legends, in particular defenders, where Hobart and the northwest are the strongest breeding ground for talent.

The country builds character

Duursma said that the most important challenge with which Country children are confronted in pursuing a Footy career, traveling is, with many important games for paths in large cities.

“Then there are sometimes facilities and things like that,” Duursma said.

“But at the same time I think that is a part of the character and the grit (that have national children). That you sometimes go without, so you just do it a bit with what you have.”

Duursma said that there is proud of a rural child “in the middle of the sticks”, without access to all things that people can have in the city areas.

“So there is a bit of a chip on your shoulder,” he said.

“And I think to be able to come (the system), and as a family with a number of brothers and sister (that) have really done well with themselves, we wear that kind of honorary languages.

“So I am really proud of that. I think our families and communities are also proud of that.”

Without their parents, Dean and Susie, who ride countless hours to train or games, Duursma said that he and his brothers and sisters would never have reached the.

“Sometimes, if you are a child, you don’t fully understand, you don’t understand it completely, but if you look back on it now, it is incredibly the amount of love, care and time they put in us,” he said.

And Country Footy has one advantage on the city.

“Do not tell my high -performance staff, but I don’t mind the cakes there at Foster. They are going pretty well -also the strawberroent donuts,” he said.