“I want to show the world what I’ve got, and if I get the chance I want to show my skills and my pace and make the environment around the club really enjoyable for everyone to see.” Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti
By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE GAZETTE first spoke with Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti in 2012 when he was known as Anthony Tipungwuti to most, and ‘Walla’ – short for wallaby, the nickname bestowed upon him as an infant by his father – to those close to him.
He sat on the couch of the Longwarry home he shared with his second mum, local school teacher and professional sports coach Jane McDonald, and the pair told how they first met in the top end, and how Walla convinced her to take him to Victoria – to Chairo Christian School, where she worked – to make his dream a reality.
When they met, his classroom was in a Tiwi Islands community where unemployment levels were high, and dreams set low. But he yearned for something different – an education and a life to call his own. He always had a prodigious footballing talent – as he displayed as a 14-year-old in the Tiwi Bombers’ senior side, and later in his time at the Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup – but his story goes so far beyond the boundary of any footy field.
Pick up a copy of this week’s Gazette – out now at local newsagents and retailers, or online as an ePaper – for the full story.
