Last Saturday, I arrived at Pritcher Park in Alphington to see the AFL Inclusion Cup (for people with intellectual disabilities) and beheld the solid figure of Ali Faraj. Who is Ali Faraj? Giants CEO David Matthews says Ali Faraj is no less important to the AFL and the Giants in Western Sydney than star player Jeremy Cameron.
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I first met Faraj and his sidekick Emad Elkheir a couple of years ago when I was involved with the AFL's half-Israeli, half-Palestinian Peace team. I heard Faraj give a pre-match address to the Palestinian players in Arabic. You didn't have to speak the language to get the tempo and urgency of what was being said, to understand that the speaker was a natural footy orator.
Faraj, 32, is a genial man who trained as a primary school teacher. David Matthews describes him as one of the few individuals who can capture people's attention at a meeting when Kevin Sheedy's also in the room. "He speaks with such energy and passion on a range of topics," Matthews says. "Time spent with Ali is never wasted."
Faraj wears a topi cap. Sometimes, he wears a jellabiya. He’s a Muslim. He's also an Aussie. "Can't you tell by my accent?" he laughs. Both Faraj's parents and Elkheir's emigrated from Lebanon, but neither has ever visited that country. "We're from here," says Elkheir, a small man with a quiet smile who trained as a physical education teacher. "We're Aussies; we love our footy, we love our snags, we love our barbecues." The pair attended Granville Boys' High School.
Ali Faraj says Australian culture is "about friendship and mateship" and, in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla race riots, he decided "it was time to try to break some barriers". He persuaded a friend from his mosque to accompany him to North Shore AFL club and ask for a game. The strategy worked.
Faraj and Elkheir are now full-time employees of the GWS Giants, running a broad range of programs aimed at embedding the Giants in Western Sydney and establishing the club's credentials in its multi-cultural environment. Matthews says Faraj and Elkheir have put the Giants "into cultural conversations in Western Sydney we've never previously had". Matthews further says Ali Faraj might one day be seen as having opened the door for the AFL into 21st-century multicultural Australia in the way Michael Long opened the door into Aboriginal Australia.
Faraj says his philosophy, and that of the Giants, is "all about inclusion" – and the Inclusion Cup is what brought him to Melbourne last week as coach of a NSW team, which wore the GWS strip and were called the Giants. I caught their semi-final against Victorian Country.
The Giants had players with names like Abdul and Trigger and Yusuf. There was a young man who didn't look anyone in the eye but bobbed around excitedly on the edge of the group shouting when expressions of team solidarity were called for. A player with anger management problems strode from the field midway through the game, swearing wildly about his teammates. No one on the Giants bench reacted. "He just needs a bit of space," said Faraj. Later, in a gentle aside, Elkheir said some of the players, because of their disabilities, can be "extreme in their emotions".
The Giants also had a couple of blokes who could play – one young man of Asian appearance regularly slid sideways out of packs and delivered thoughtful, accurate passes over 30 and 40 metres by foot.
At quarter-time, GWS led. Faraj cried out in his big, hoarse voice, "You’re doing great, Matt!", and I looked at the object of his praise, a slightly surprised-looking man in his mid-20s, and wondered how long it was since anyone had told Matt he was doing great. Well, Ali Faraj did and he's got the manner of a footy coach, an older man whose confidence you want to win because he knows things you don't.
At half-time, the Giants led by 10 points. Victorian Country was the title favourite. Faraj told his boys, as he called them, the time to rest was when they got back to the hotel. "If you come off fresh at the end of the game, you haven't played football."
Vic Country hit the front late in the third term, detonating cheers from their supporters and enthusiastic hugs all round for the players. Five points down at the last break, Faraj pleaded for one more quarter from his team. Yusuf, the Giants' full-forward, didn't run but he could kick straight and mark on his chest. Yusuf goaled to put the Giants within range, the match teetered, then Country's best players combined to get them over the line.
Players, supporters, coaches, merged in a mass in middle of the ground. The Victorian Country coach Rob Klemm was openly emotional. "What a game of footy!" he cried. "What an effort by New South Wales! That was the best game of footy of the tournament." Alia Faraj responded: "We've always looked up to you guys. We want to get up to your standard."
And so it was that I witnessed a footy match, the first in some time, that ended in a spontaneous eruption of goodwill.
