Fallon keen to inspire Maori, Polynesian talent
stuff.co.nz 25/06/2010
Rory Fallon hopes to return to New Zealand after his professional career to inspire Maori and Polynesian youngsters to follow him into football.
The 28-year-old All Whites striker is right behind Maori Football New Zealand’s campaign to offer football as a credible alternative to rugby and rugby league – the traditional codes for Maori and Polynesian youth.
Fallon belongs to the Ngati Porou iwi on the North Island’s East Coast and says his Maori heritage is “a massive part of who I am”. He spoke about his passion for creating football heroes for Maori youth at a presentation to the All Whites by Maori Football New Zealand in South Africa this week.
Fallon believes there is tremendous potential” for young Maori to take up football, which has traditionally been regarded in New Zealand as a middle class, Pakeha sport.
But that perception may not be reality.
Maori New Zealand manager Phil Pickering Parker says a survey two years ago showed “roughly in the vicinity of 50,000 to 60,000 Maori youth, across both genders in the five to 12 age bracket” were playing football.
“What was really, really surprising to us was in the boys’ bracket, football featured higher than rugby and rugby league, which I guess really gave us the spur on to go on and do something and form an organisation to promote the beauty of the game, the health benefits of football, the social interactiveness… basically all the life messages that football brings.”
Parker says the All Whites had, in the past, “been invisible” to New Zealand youth, who lacked “some visible role models, whether Maori or non-Maori”.
“So hopefully with this sort of exposure and the great success the All Whites are having at the moment, I can’t see why football at some near point in the future can’t rival rugby and rugby league [as a sporting choice for Maori].
Parker says the traditional age for Maori youth to drop out of football is between 13 and 15. “That’s the age they transition into rugby and other more physical, traditional sports.”
He hopes the All Whites’ higher profile will help stem the tide and show youngsters there is a career path in football.
Helping that cause is the fact that the All Whites are no longer all white. Four members of the squad – starting XI stalwarts Fallon, Winston Reid and Leo Bertos and midfielder Jeremy Christie, who came off the bench in the draws with Slovakia and Italy, have Maori heritage.
Fallon’s father Kevin is a Yorkshireman who came to New Zealand to play for Gisborne City and later went to the 1982 World Cup finals as the All Whites’ assistant coach.
His mother, Mere, is Ngati Porou. “I’ve been brought up on [Maori culture] since I was young,” Fallon says. “I’ve been at the marae on the East Coast… Obviously I don’t believe in all the Maori gods, I believe in one God,” the born-again Christian said. “But apart from that, it’s a massive part of my culture.”
Fallon – who scored the headed goal that took the All Whites to South Africa – knows his presence at the World Cup finals “is a great honour for my tribe”.
Fallon hopes young Maori may look to him, Reid, Bertos and Christie and see a future for themselves in football.
“Everyone looks up to the All Blacks because they are one of the best teams in the world and a lot of them are Maori and Polynesians. They look to the football team and there weren’t any Maori or Polynesians. But now there’s four of us. I know there’s talent out there, there’s definitely talent…you only have to look at the All Blacks and Kiwi rugby league teams and see the power and [athletic ability] there, so why not football?”
Maori and Polynesians have “massive” football potential, Fallon believes.
“They’re strong [and] they’re quick. To be a top footballer, that’s what you need. But you always find it’s the discipline that lets them down ”
That’s where Fallon – who left New Zealand at 16 to forge a professional career in England - hopes he and others can help.
His Christian faith has inspired him to get involved in programmes for under-privileged kids in Plymouth where he plays for Plymouth Argyle.
He hopes to do something similar in New Zealand when he returns home.
“Hopefully, one day when I come back to New Zealand, I can get my hands dirty.
“I’ve always felt in my heart I’d love to give something back to Maori and Polynesian kids or anyone who’s struggling with their lives, their families, gang culture or crime.
“There’s always a way out. There’s two ways you can go, the right way or the wrong way and we want to show them the right way.”
Football could offer a way out, Fallon says.
“There’s a Maori or Polynesian kid out there struggling as we speak who are watching the World Cup on TV and thinking, ‘I don’t have to be in a gang’. I can get into my school team, play as good as I can and play for New Zealand and hopefully one day play in the World Cup’. ”
“Anything’s possible.”
Fallon would like to work in with Maori Football New Zealand ” because Phil’s already there doing the groundwork”. “There’s no point me starting up my own thing, I’m not one of those people who want to take all the limelight, if I see something like Phil’s doing I’ll join in.”
Parker is hard at work promoting the game to Maori and Polynesians in areas like South Auckland and assisting promising players with development and educational opportunities.
He has practised what he preaches. As a boy in Rotorua he “tended to play a lot more rugby and league out the back with the brothers and the cousins”.
But his life changed at five when suffered third degree burns to 51 per cent of his body in a serious accident.
“The doctor said I couldn’t play because of the thinness of my skin, so rugby and league were absolute no-nos because of the fear of infection.”
His father, former English professional Denis Pickering Parker decided “football would be good for my rehab so he chucked me in goal”. “But I didn’t stay there long, I like to run around.”
Parker never looked back. He was a star junior player and captained the Junior All Whites in 1989 before having a long career in the northern regional leagues till “a string of injuries last year”.
He’s passed his love of the game down to his 13-year-old daughter, Taelor, “who has 30 per cent permanent hearing loss”.
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