AFL Cape York

If South African Archbishop and human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu ever becomes an Australian rules fan, you can probably thank Patrick Nandy.

The 15 year old from Wujal Wujal toured South Africa with indigenous youth team the Flying Boomerangs this month and had the chance to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

"He was a really funny man," Nandy said of Tutu.

"Me and another boy presented him with a boomerang and a guernsey and he really liked it.

"I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him about footy but hopefully he'll get into it."

Nandy and the rest of his teammates spent two weeks in South Africa, visiting the major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town in a cultural and sporting exchange.

Nandy, who attends St Peter's Lutheran College in Brisbane on a sporting scholarship, said South Africa was a beautiful country.

"I've been to PNG before and it was good to see another part of the world and meet a lot of different people," he said.

"It was different over there.  The one thing I noticed at their sports grounds was that South Africans loved singing and were always chanting, which gave it a good atmosphere."

The Flying Boomerangs played two games on tour, beating the South African Lions Inland Squad 9.13 (67) TO 8.9(57) before thrashing the Lions Coastal Squad 17.10 (112) to 5.6 (36).

Sydney Swans great Michael O'Loughlin coached the indigenous youth team, while former AFL players Chris Johnson and Malcolm Lynch also joined the tour in an ambassadorial role.

INSPIRATION is never more than a phone call away for the Gold Coast Football Club's Rex Liddy.

As the nephew of North Queensland Cowboys rugby star Matt Bowen, reminders of how far he has come and how far he can go with football are close to home.  Liddy, 18 was spotted at an Australian football clinic in the Aboriginal township of Hope Vale six years ago and he has not looked back despite coming from a league-mad area.

"I didn't know the game and I didn't want to know it but once I tried it back in Primary school, I loved it.  It's the best game in the world," Liddy said during the GCFC's Community Camp in northern NSW last week.

"I get on the phone to Matty every now and then and he always backs me up.  "He always tells me that I've got the opportunity of a life time and I should make the most of it.  "He's an inspiration and I hope I can follow in his footsteps."

GCFC football manager Marcus Ashcroft says Liddy has the ability to become an elite professional footballer just like his famous uncle.

Standing 181cm and tipping the scales at 83kg, Liddy impressed in the forward pocket for the Gold Coast in the TAC Cup under-18 competition last year and Ashcroft says he will only get better.

"He's been with us for two years now and is one of those exciting kids that came along in leaps and bounds.  If he can maintain that level of development in 2010 he'll be an AFL player in 2011," Ashcroft said.

LESS than a month into the 2010 school year and Dave Maddock-Jones already knows what his short-term goals for Djarragun College are.

The 52-year-old is the new manager of the college's AFL academy program, taking over from Steve Daniel, who moved back to Victoria at the end of last year.

A qualified teacher who comes originally from South Australia, Maddock-Jones said Australian rules was an important part of Djarragun's sporting identity.

"I want to spend a bit more time developing football in the primary school," he said.  "I definitely think there is some room for growth there.

"I also want to integrate more of the older kids into local club footy in Cairns and get a few more kids into the Crusader representative teams than what we have been getting.  I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in."

Maddock-Jones is well qualified to work with the college's students, many of whom come from remote indigenous communities across the Far North.

His most recent teaching post was in Badu Island, where he stayed for five years, and he has also spent time in the classrooms of Kowanyama and Bamaga.

While he and his wife enjoyed their time in those parts of the Far North, Maddock-Jones said the new position at Djarragun was impossible to pass up.  "We'd basically done time at Badu Island.  We thought five years was enough and that we wanted to head back to the mainland," he said.

"I'm the type of person who likes to take on new challenges and it was basically too good an opportunity to miss.  "It's a wonderful place to be and work."