The revival of the idea of Indigenous influence on the origins of Australian rules football diverts attention from another, much more uncomfortable story about Indigenous relationships to football.
Research shows there are some common struggles among those who retire from being professional athletes but players can be successful in careers after sport.
Australian sport will never have the commercial clout to bring the economy out of recession or solve a regional unemployment problem. But it is more than a fringe player in the economic game.
The goal of identifying leadership attributes that translate into team success remains as elusive in sport as it does in other spheres of human endeavour.
Sport can be a driver for change; it can make a difference in people’s lives and unify communities, particularly around national successes. But it can also create tensions and cause conflict.
Until we see a marked change in the stories that are told, together with a shift from inclusion to social justice, the national story of Australian sport will remain very, very white.
The 2016 State of Origin rugby league competition is over for another year and the focus has shifted to off-field events with claims for compensation for brain injury.
Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University