Introduction and Early Life

Liam Jurrah is a young and upcoming professional Australian Rules footballer who is currently playing with the Melbourne Football Club. He was born on September 22, 1988 and he is from a small remote indigenous Australian community known as Yuendumu in Northern Territory. He has been able to make history as the first indigenous person from this community to play professional football at the senior level in Australian Football League (AFL). He is about 1.88 metres tall and weighs about 83kg. He plays in the forward position with the jersey number 24. He was drafted during the pre-season draft of 2008 and was the number one (1) pick by the Melbourne Demons Football Club.

Early Football Career

Jurrah began playing football as a small boy growing up in the remote location of Yuendumu and various other locations around Central Australia especially during football carnivals. His father was a traditional Yuendumu football player so it was not so difficult for the young Liam to learn this game. Liam continued learning from his father and his enthusiasm for the game grew tremendously as he continued playing. His efforts started yielding dividends when in 2005 he was invited to be part of the under seventeen (U-17) team. He was also able to make Grade A in the premiership seasons of 2007 and 2008 with the Yuendumu Magpies.

He later had the opportunity in 2008 to feature for Collingwood Football Club in the Victoria Football League for four games displaying great skill and talent. He also had the opportunity to play for Victoria Football League in the game against South Australia Football League. During this same year in 2008, Liam also won the highly coveted Everingham Medal as the best player in the inaugural Central Australia Football League (CAFL) Grand Final, where he kicked four goals during the first quarter. Thus the Yuendumu Magpies were able to win the first and newly combined competition of town including country sides that previously were playing in Alice Springs. After this victory, he went on to play for Nightcliff in the Northern Territory Football League where he became the cynosure of AFL talent scouts after kicking five goals in his last game. One of these scouts was first to identify his potential and introduced him to the Melbourne Demons football club. He was later chased by many AFL clubs to accept their offers and consequently nominated to take part in the pre-season national AFL draft of 2009 where he was picked by the Melbourne Demons.

Professional Career Achievements

Liam Jurrah finally made his debut appearance in the AFL during the twelfth round of the 2009 AFL season in the match against Essendon. He displayed spectacular performances in his games and also scored goals during his first season in the AFL. He was later nominated to the AFL Rising Star Award nomination. He continued improving his game as the season went by till he became the toast of the Melbourne fans. He became a star and celebrity of some sort in his local town when he travelled with his club’s president to his local community where he grew up. The visit was aired on television.

He sustained a serious injury during the 2010 season. He dislocated his shoulder in the match against Adelaide crows, and was required to go through surgery to fix it. Little did he realise that initially this injury will keep him out of play for about sixteen weeks. He later came back to play and was able to perform very well scoring two goals in the round fifteen victory against Essendon.