The 2019 National Indigenous Touch Football Knockout is all set for a return, with organisers saying the event is tracking to be bigger than last year's iteration.
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Darren Ah-See, the CEO of the Wellington Aboriginal Corporate Health Service, says the yearly event took a hit when the planned date earlier in the year was changed, but is still trending well.
"This is our third year we've held the knockout and it's been getting bigger and bigger every year, it'll be bigger than last year, but it's hard to judge by just how much right now," Ah-See said.
"It's good for Dubbo, it's always good for the community, Apex Oval is one of those premier venues to hold these sort of carnivals, it's got a very good track record."
The carnival will host eleven separate divisions, with open men, women and mixed divisions filling out the senior competition and junior boys and girls ranging through under 10s, 12s, 14s and 16s.
"But apart from the sport, we're really focused on raising awareness of indigenous health issues, things like chronic disease, smoking and those other general health issues that we've been trying to deal with."
"Carnivals like these are a really good avenue for us to promote what we're trying to do with the Aboriginal Corporate Health Service, getting people from all sorts of parts of Australia is great for us, because the message is no different from here to somewhere like Western Australia."
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Project manager Karl Williamson says that coming onboard as a naming rights sponsor for the knockout is a 'big thing' for AbSec.
It's good for Dubbo, it's always good for the community, Apex Oval is one of those premier venues to hold these sort of carnivals, it's got a very good track record.
- Darren Ah-See
"Everyone's really stoked about it, we're got a lot of memberships out east, along the coast, so to get a few more west of the mountains is going to be really good for us and the children and families in New South Wales," Williamson said.
Last year's Touch Knockout carnival played host to sporting legends such as North Queensland halfback Scott Prince, who is expected to make a return this year.
"We get some high profile players, Scotty Prince who's a well known NRL players and has featured in the last two carnivals, he's one of the ambassadors for this carnival as well as Bo De La Cruz, getting those people involved and spreading the message through their work and the communities they're in touch with is a big help as well," Ah-See said.
"Some people come here just for the social side of things, the family oriented side of things, and some people come here to take away the prize, so to speak, but at the end of the day, it's about winning off the field as much as it is on."
Prince starred for Trackz last year, the team who were declared the winner of the 2018 Touch Knockout grand final after defeating the Castlereagh All Blacks, and was also part of the Mixed division winners Watch The Feet.
There is still time left for those looking to compete to organise a team for the event with nominations closing on Friday, November 1.
