Perkins' Love: A Knockout In Redfern

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday October 8, 2002

Daniel Lewis

Charlie Perkins represented Australia at soccer, but also loved his rugby league. His daughter, Rachel, 32, accompanied him to countless annual knockout competitions, which are now the biggest events on the Aboriginal calender in NSW.

Yesterday she was at Redfern Oval where the first knockout was held in 1971 to see the presentation of the inaugural Charles Perkins Memorial Shield to this year's winning side.

Ms Perkins said her activist father, who died in 2000, ``would be really chuffed" by the honour.

``He loved the opportunity [the knockout gave] to get to be with blackfellas from all around the state," she said. ``It was a big part of his life. We would do laps of the oval talking to everyone."

Mr Perkins barracked for the Redfern All Blacks, and the Boomerangs in Moree, where his famous Freedom Ride took him in 1965. Despite a rival knockout in Moree that also ran over the weekend, 48 teams entered the Sydney event over the weekend at Erskineville Oval and Redfern.

Sponsored by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, it boasted prize money of $120,000. Its spokeswoman, Phillipa McDermott, daughter of rugby international Lloyd, said the knockout was as much about catching up with friends and family as footy. ``They do a lot of cultural business as well," she said.

In the men's final, Muli Muli Coraki United, from the Northern Rivers, boasted Dally M medalist Preston Campbell, but were thrashed by a La Perouse Panthers side that had rugby international Andrew Walker.

The day's greatest spectacle was La Perouse battling Armidale's Narwan Eels in the women's final. There were big players and big hits in a ferociously wilful game. Narwan won and the club song rang around the ground.