Clontarf Foundation

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The Clontarf Foundation is a non-profit foundation with the aims to improve the health, employment, education and life skills of Australia’s teenaged male indigenous population. It uses participation in the popular sport of Australian rules football to assist in achieving these aims.

The founder and managing director is Gerard Neesham, who has overseen the development of many indigenous footballers as a coach for the Fremantle Football Club. The foundation chairman is Ross Kelly, a chairman, director or board member of many prominent West Australian companies and the former chairman of the Fremantle Football Club. Staff include former Fremantle players Dale Kickett, Ashley Prescott and Andrew McGovern, as well as many other former players from the Australian Football League or the WAFL.

The original Clontarf Football Academy was established in 2000 at the Clontarf Aboriginal College site in Waterford, Western Australia. Since then Clontarf Football Academies have been commenced in the Goldfields (Kalgoorlie), Great Southern (Albany), Midwest (Geraldton), West Kimberley (Broome) and Yule Brook (Maddington).

Graduates of the academies who have gone on to play football at a professional level include Mark Williams, Dion Woods, Andrew Krakouer, Michael Johnson and Patrick Ryder. The academy produced three picks in the 2005 AFL Draft and six in the 2006 AFL Draft.^[1]

In 2006 the Clontarf Foundation conducted an exercise in South Africa, sending a group of young indigenous Australian players, as well as Jason McCartney and Derek Kickett, to Potchefstroom, where they played games against local South African players. [1] The Indigenous Youth Tour is part of the Australian Football League's ongoing wish to expand the game outside Australia.

The Foundation is a member of the National Trust of Australia.