A team of the Big Rivers' best football players is travelling to Darwin today ahead of their clash with the Central Australian Redtails.
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Set to take on the Alice Springs team on Saturday at 2 pm at TIO Stadium, Big Rivers captain, Andrew Symes, said the group is looking forward to their chance to represent the region and the coaches are happy with the players in the squad.
"The coaching staff, they're pretty excited, they're happy with what they've got," he said.
"A lot of the lads now are realising what it means to the town and what it means to be in a rep side.
"It doesn't come around often, there's that many blokes to choose from, there's so much talent in the community sides and Katherine."
Mr Symes said the team have been training together, with players travelling into the town from remote communities in the area.
"We've had one decent training session on the weekend... twenty [people] on the Saturday when they came in [from communities]."
He said a representative team hasn't been selected from the Big Rivers in a number of years, which means some experienced league players are getting their first look at playing at this level.
"There's a lot of experienced players... that probably haven't played in a rep side before," he said.
"They do it mostly every year, but last year I'm not sure what happened."
Mr Symes said he's excited just to take part in the game against the Red Tails, let alone win it.
"I haven't seen them play, I haven't seen much of them, but they're a solid side, big lads so they'll be a hard team," he said.
"To come up against them and maybe even win it would be even better."
He said some strong individual performances from Big Rivers players could catch the crowd's eyes.
"People like Kayle Kossack he's one to look out for... there's plenty of talent that can be looked at."
Big Rivers coach Malcolm Fox said he's confident in the selected players.
"We have strong key position players in the team with plenty of experience in place to support our exciting smaller players from all corners of our region who love to run and carry and move the ball fast."
The coach said he expects a goal fest on Saturday afternoon.
"The Redtails are a tough organised opponent that will be hard to beat," Mr Fox said.
"The match will be a high scoring match to watch that hopefully encompass the best of rep footy that shows off the best things about NT footy."
The Big Rivers playing guernsey was designed by 17-year-old Katherine artist Jamie Bryant.
Ms Bryant is also a strong player in the local league and an NT Thunder Academy player; she was crowned the Big Rivers Football League Women's Fairest and Best player in 2020.
"The blue in the middle represents the 'Rivers' of the region while the circles and patterns represent the different communities and teams that play in the competition," Ms Bryant explained.
"All together the guernsey represents how all the different communities are coming together to play as one Big Rivers team."
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