NARELLE Long may be a member of one of football's most famous families, but she's carving her own path within the sport.
The niece of legendary football figure Michael, Long has worked at the AFL in various capacities since 2009, and is currently the national diversity talent programs manager.
The connections are spread across the country.
The Long and Rioli families are also closely connected, while Narelle's cousin Danielle Ponter is a two-time premiership player with Adelaide (Danielle's mum is the sister of Narelle's dad). Cousin Ben Long is currently a consistent presence in Gold Coast's forward line.
"I moved from Darwin to Melbourne to study a double degree in exercise science and human movement, and sports and rec management. I was lucky enough to do my placement at the AFL, and was fortunate enough to have some nice connections in my family to give me those opportunities at the start," Long said.
"But I've paved my own path since then. What's made me stay working in the industry is seeing the impact of what we're doing on young people.
"A really long time ago, when I first started, the focus was always on boys. We ran all of our Indigenous programs for young boys, or those who were a little older who had missed out on pathway opportunities, and I was able to see how they grew.
"Some of them made the AFL, and they said, 'look, my journey started here' with some of the programs we were running. It was a really wholesome feeling that we've made an impact on a young person's life that maybe set the direction for them in a different way, and it's been really positive.
"It's something over time that has evolved into the women's space, and I've been able to see my little nieces and cousins come into an environment and thrive. Not only were we giving football as a way for them to learn and grow, but create a cultural and sisterhood environment where they could learn from each other."
While Long – who has a sprinting background – hasn't played football herself, she's recently picked up the whistle, with her boundary umpiring coming on so quickly over summer that she's been promoted to the premier men's division of the NTFL.
Her three kids come and watch her run the boundary at TIO Stadium, while their local club is St Mary's, one of three clubs based in or around Darwin's main oval.
While with a long career in the industry still ahead of her, one of Long's legacy pieces is the work she poured into setting up the Woomeras program for Indigenous teenage girls.
The Woomeras even used to enter a team in the under-18 national championships, when it was still split in two divisions, taking out the second tier title in 2014.
A 14-year-old Danielle Ponter – playing for the Woomeras alongside Courtney Hodder and Imahra Cameron – won the division two best and fairest, while future Freo skipper Hayley Miller was awarded the division one trophy.
"Our first ever female program was called the Woomeras, and it's come into its own now, but it was set up as the 'woomera' (a traditional hunting tool, the word coming from the Eora language) gives the spear strength, power and direction," Long said.
"We wanted it to drive that positive power, strength and direction so that our young women could take into football if they wanted to, but more importantly, take back to their communities and be leaders in their own right, in the way they chose.
"Courtney Hodder and Krstel Petrevski started their journeys with the Woomeras, and it's nice to think we might have had a small impact for them and their football journeys.
"But then others have come out and are coaching, or are back being a captain at their local community club, which is just as rewarding."
Long's team are in the process of somewhat revamping the National Indigenous Academy, with a clear focus on retaining boys and girls within the system. The team have found strong Indigenous representation at under-16 level, but a decrease in numbers by under-18s.
"Over the last 12 months we've looked at how we can better address some of the gaps that we've noticed within our talent pathway system, and we've shifted the focus to be more lasered in on the 17th year for our Indigenous and multicultural athletes," she said.
"We're now going to be hosting a match for both the boys' and girls' programs, and we're still running our educational content that we do each month.
"We have (pre-recorded video) football master classes every month from our AFL and AFLW Indigenous and multicultural players, who have given their time to showcase a skill or drill they continue to work on as a player.
"There's some really cool things from Darcy Vescio, Aliesha Newman, Bobby Hill, Sam Powell-Pepper – to name a few – that expose our young people to some unique ways they can go back and work on their footy.
"Bobby Hill's drill for his month is all about the ball drop. So he demonstrates what he does, small little things where you go, 'do you know what? He practices this 20 times a couple of times a week, maybe I could do that too.' He broke it down from sitting on a chair, then a middle stage, then standing up, and it's things the kids can do by themselves.
"We send videos out, talking to them with a personal development/leadership focus. We've got a social, emotional and cultural wellbeing focus, and we've got a football focus, and regular catch-ups with Ben Davis (ex-Adelaide), Rueben William (ex-Brisbane) and Aila Pera, who look after the programs for our young people."
Whether program graduates play AFL/W, or return to local sides or communities, Long hopes her work simply helps players at an important point in their personal development.
"One of the main reasons that our team does what we do is to continue to provide those opportunities for our young people," she said.
"We're really passionate about providing not just a program that's going to make them a better athlete, but a better young person as well, which is really important.
"It's really good to see a lot of our young people feeling that this is something they want to strive to be, and reach."
