'Long May He Lead', the Age, 24 February 2018
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4848 THE AGE FEBRUARYSATURDAY, 24, FEBRUARY 2018 24, 2018 SPORT ISSN 0312-6307 SPORT 9 770312 630066 Suns co-captain Steven May on PAGE 46 the Gold Coast this week. Photo: Paul Harris ABLETT SCARE PAGE 40 DEAN JONES Australia need to attack South Africa PAGE 38 DIAMOND DAY PAGE 45 GREG BAUM Skier’s end is in his beginning PAGE 39 MICHAEL LONG MAY LYNCH Can English clubs rule in HE LEAD Europe? TThehe AFL’sAFL’s onlyonly indigenousindigenous captaincaptain findsfinds hishis voice.voice. MICHAEL GLEESON PAGES 42, 43 AFLW: SEVEN-GOAL BULLDOG LEADS ROUT OF BLUES PAGE 44 , SUPER RUGBY: REBELS’ WINNING START PAGE 41 NATAGED2 A048 42 THE AGE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018 SPORT FOOTBALL Favourite Sun finds his voice The AFL’s only Indigenous captain opens up on early troubles, family matters, Kevin Rudd’s apology and why Australia Day needs to change. Indigenous man from WA. He took off when Steven was only a toddler then turned up again on the Michael doorstep unannounced when he Gleeson was 13. May told him to piss off. He couldn’t come back 12 years later and expect a hug. Steven May sat at school assembly His dad died a few years ago and quietly seething. On the large with him went the opportunity to screen at the front Kevin Rudd ask a few questions May now was saying sorry. would have liked answers to. He May was emotional and excited doesn’t regret sending him away at the apology. Around him, his but misses those answers. new schoolmates at Melbourne He didn’t need an Indigenous Grammar were not so pleased. dad around for him to grow up “I was sitting there listening to Indigenous. He had Patrick May. all the students around me saying, Patrick was an Indigenous man ‘Why are we doing this shit? It’s and a traditional owner of not our fault’. And I sat there quiet Larrakia land stretching from because I wasn’t going to say Darwin out towards Gunbalanya anything, there was a thousand in Kakadu. He married Steven’s kids at my school and 80 per cent grandma – his mum’s mum – so out of them disagreed with the there in Kakadu and Darwin’s apology. I thought I am going to fringe was where Steven’s mum keep my mouth shut and just go and her kids lived. about my business. It was my first May is the AFL’s only week of school. I came down from Indigenous captain. He is co- Darwin and this school was captain again with Tom Lynch, massive. I wanted to fit in,” the and is only the sixth Indigenous Gold Coast captain said, recalling player to captain a club. He is that day 10 years ago. proud of it and hopes it can help “It wasn’t their fault – they just reshape the attitude to indigenous didn’t know any better. That was players as leaders. when I realised I had a role, not “It is not something recruiters In Melbourne AFL recruiters after living on edge for a year. He had left Darwin but not the only as an athlete at the school but have looked for in indigenous were at every Associated Public They would adjourn it and I had to family. as an Indigenous athlete to players. They look for that X Schools match. go back to school for 10 weeks and For his first years at the Suns he educate the students. A lot of them factor, not a captain,” he said. “I had to make a massive call. I come back to court again. You are felt like those early days at didn’t know, it was just ignorance, May was on an all-too-familiar am the oldest of seven siblings sitting in the courthouse at eight Melbourne Grammar. He wanted they didn’t know what happened path in Darwin. At 14, he was on now – I didn’t have seven at the o’clock and you sit there in the to shut up and fit in, and let others in the past, they didn’t know what charges for aggravated assault for time. There was no man in the lobby for hours waiting to get on lead. happens now. They are a lot from an incident also involving his mate house. I had to make the decision. and then you are on for 10 minutes “The penny dropped for me Toorak and that, they’re just in Troy Taylor. Mum was good. She knew I had to and it’s adjourned. after a few years and I thought, their bubble.” Taylor was on a bond at the time go, it was my best chance to get a “It worked out in the end why can’t I do it?” he said. Most of May’s schoolmates good education and be seen by because of the headmaster’s The leadership was two-fold for were also unaware their new recruiters,” he said. reference, I reckon. I remember him. He wanted to lead the club boarder was Indigenous. He The Rudd apology was a the judge saying ‘I hope the whole and lead the Indigenous players. looked like any other fair-skinned, ‘I thought I am going confronting early moment but not process taught you something’ Like at school, many in AFL were fair-haired, blue-eyed kid at the to keep my mouth reflective of his experience at the and I thought ‘yeah, I am not unaware of May’s Indigenous South Yarra school. If his skin was school, which was coming here again’.’’ heritage at first. a little more tanned than others it shut and just go overwhelmingly positive. In He was drafted by the Suns as a “I suppose it would be better if I did not stand out among those who Darwin he was barely turning up 17-year-old priority player. The was bit darker so people would spent the summer at Portsea and about my business.’ at school. At Melbourne Grammar move to the Gold Coast after three know, but that doesn’t change winter in Europe. Steven May only the nurse’s pass would let a years as a boarder made the anything, the boys know,” he said. “That was the hard bit, they boarder cut a break. They also transition easy. “But I am the same. I see boys would talk to me and not realise so the courts were not as forgiving expected you to train for football He settled at the club and in his who are light-skinned and I didn’t and I had to bite my tongue,’’ he of him as they proved to be of May. in the depth of winter before place in the team. He was in know they were Indigenous and said. ‘‘I am trying to make friends Taylor was recruited to Richmond school, doing push-ups on your constant contact with his mum you find out from one of the AFL and not have an argument and in but his history proved too difficult knuckles on frost-crusted ovals. and siblings back in Darwin. She maps and now when you see them my first week Kevin Rudd does the to overcome to make an AFL He flew back to Darwin for was still doing things fairly hard. it’s ‘how you going brother?’” apology. career. regular court dates and it was He flew home one break and Last year he wore No.67 on his “I am sitting there in a time At 15, May went to a schoolboys’ those hours in courtroom foyers picked the family up in a car. They back during the Indigenous round which is amazing and historic for footy championship in Sydney. He waiting through adjournment drove through Darwin until, to recognise the 50-year our culture and I had to mask it only went for the holiday and to see after adjournment that steeled a apparently randomly, he pulled up anniversary of the referendum on and fit in. I hated that. That was a big city but he came back with resolve not to make this his life. A outside a house. Aboriginal voting. He approached really hard and that was the offers of footy scholarships. reference from then headmaster “Why we stopping here?” his his co-captain Lynch and told him welcome to Melbourne.’’ He had been going to school one Paul Sheahan saved him from jail mum asked. he was going to wear it. He asked May’s mum has red hair and the day in three in Darwin, had the and saved his football dream, May May nodded towards the gate. if Lynch would wear the 50. Lynch complexion of a woman from court dates looming and knew said. There was a red ribbon on it. was enthusiastic. He gets it. Cork, not Kakadu. His dad was an football could be a path to change. “That was a big learning curve “It’s yours,” he said. The numbers started NATAGE A042 SPORT SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018 THE AGE 43 FOOTBALL Demons keen to keep Alice games in Alice Springs, and educational Jon Pierik and work programs associated with the sport off it. Melbourne have declared they ‘‘I am really happy with where we would like to host Adelaide or Port have got to with this because it’s the Adelaide annually in Alice Springs fourth game in Alice Springs. To be the week leading into the Sir Doug frank, we tried to kick it along a Nicholls round. couple of years ago and we looked AFL, Demons and government around the location and said, ‘What officials were at Desert Park in Alice an amazing unique location to play Springs yesterday, where it was re- elite sport, why don’t we try and vealed the league’s indigenous build it up?’,’’ he said.