International tour falls at Joel's fleet feet

Joel Hagan’s a young man on the move – as fast as possible, around any football field.

Rugby union is his passion and preferred future; a career in rugby league is also on the cards; and this month (December) he’s in Fiji, playing Australian rules for Australia’s Indigenous under-15s side.

“When I was younger, my dad suggested I play as many sports as possible so you can have your options open,” he said. “That sort of took off.”

Joel (pictured), a boarder at St Joseph’s Nudgee College in Brisbane, said he spent years as a one-eyed rugby league devotee.

“I was playing league for about nine years,” he said. “I didn’t really have an interest in any other sport. In year 6, I started to get a bit of pace about myself so (it was suggested) I do athletics as well.

“Year 6 was the first year I ever represented athletics; (I) came sixth at (the) nationals that year and (in) Year 7 came second at the Pan Pacific Games.

“I still do a lot (of athletics) but a lot of injuries through rugby prevent me from doing my best these days, because it’s after rugby season. I still look forward to doing it each year.”

Joel’s interest in Australian rules came about as a bit of fun between mates – “get the ball and kick the ball around a bit. But it turned out I had a bit of an impact so I started looking at it a bit more seriously,” he said.

The Brisbane Lions AFL team spotted Joel in year 7 and approached him when he started at Nudgee College in Year 8.

“That’s when they approached me and they said join the Lions academy, and I’ve stuck to it, basically,” he said. “It just helps me practise my skills, keep my fitness up. It’s like afternoon training and sometimes over the holidays we have full team training with all the other regions coming in and training too.”

Despite this, Joel says it was a surprise when he was selected for the Flying Boomerangs squad to tour Fiji.

“That was a bit a shock, really,” he said. “I went to the Gold Coast, playing for the Queensland Indigenous side, and then it was a long time before I got the call – so long, I forgot all about it. I was really excited; started getting my passport ready straight away.”

Joel’s a fairly versatile player, capable of filling many positions. In the Queensland Indigenous team, he “played a lot of the game in the forward pocket, also centre half forward, but I did also play a lot of ruck-rover and rover and stuff,” he said.

“I like the middle. (My strengths are) speed and aggression, I suppose. Since I’m a union sort of player, I like to get in and bang around.”

Joel completed year 10 this year and has his eyes set on university, football and business. He has tailored his up-coming senior school studies around this plan – “mainly business sort of studies and hospitality; something that I might probably need in life”. Joel says his aim is “to go to uni, study more business and sporting medicine, and to just try and excel at my rugby as well – see if I can go any further with that.

Rugby union is my main goal, playing as a professional. League’s still also still there.”

And once the sport’s done? “(I’ll) probably help communities, maybe; something like that. With the business (studies) I’ll try and start a business or something (in) Indigenous training, or something like that.”

A young man on the move.

Flying Boomerangs hit Fiji

Three Queenslanders have made Australia’s Flying Boomerangs team that toured Fiji in December.

Isaac Rokeby, Zengray Nona and Joel Hagan were all first-choice selections for the national under-15s Indigenous side, marking them amongst the most talented young Australian rules players in the country.

Isaac, from Weipa, and Zengray, from Badu Island, both board at Djarragun College in Gordonvale – a long way from the Victorian-South Australian heartland of Australian Rules football.

“It was a big achievement; I’m looking forward to going for it,” Isaac said of his selection. “(My family is) proud of me. They want me to go for it too.”

For Zengray, selection was a long-term goal. He’s been playing the sport since he was nine and, like Isaac, hopes it may ultimately lead to a run in the AFL.

The boys became mates when Isaac came to Djarragun College in 2010 and spend most afternoons kicking a ball around together. They also play on the same team in a club-level competition in Cairns.

The Flying Boomerangs is an AFL Indigenous youth football program with personal development and leadership its key objectives, and which springs from the successful KickStart program.