AFL followers might remember Balraj Singh as Adelaide’s selection at No.79 in the 1999 national draft. The product of Indian parents, he was considered exotic in football circles despite having grown up in Waikerie, a South Australian town that is no more exotic than Dencorub. In recent seasons, Singh has played local footy in Victorian competitions and he’s still considered exotic.
All these years later, local newspapers still refer to him as the first player of Indian origin to be drafted by an AFL club.

But despite the admittedly rare sight of a 193-centimetre player of subcontinental background patrolling the goalsquare, it’s not his appearance that excites most comment; it’s his openness in playing for the dollar. Money has always been part of football — at all levels — but you wouldn’t believe that if you watched a game in which Singh was playing.

During an interview yesterday, the 26-year-old described hearing supporters make the “ching-ching” sound of a cash register whenever he kicks a goal. Spectators crane over the fence and demand to know where he’ll be playing the following year.

Singh was open in saying that he’s played for “massive” contracts at local footy clubs, beginning at Canberra club Ainslie in 2003 and peaking last year when he played for Balranald, a club on the Murrumbidgee River in southern NSW. Balranald was able to challenge stronger rivals from along the Murray River by paying a carload of recruits to drive four hours from Melbourne every weekend.

Singh was reluctant to disclose his season’s salary at Balranald, but he did say he was paid as much as an AFL rookie, which is more than $30,000. Spectators gave him hell but by the end of the grand final, which Balranald lost to Tooleybuc-Manangatang, he’d kicked 111 goals.

“I take it in my stride,” he said of the money references.

Singh is less sanguine about spectators’ occasional reference to him as a “curry muncher”, and he hates being asked what he’s doing playing “our game”. He regards himself a semi-professional sportsman, supplementing his football income by working as a stevedore on the Melbourne docks, but he also plays because he loves it.

“I love country football especially,” he said. “I’m from the country.”

After last season, Singh decided against returning to Balranald because he was sick of the travel but also because the club benefactor, a businessman in the timber industry, withdrew his cash. Singh, who lives in Moonee Ponds, signed on at a heavily reduced fee with the Goulburn Valley league’s Kyabram, a club that last year blooded a dozen teenagers while struggling to second last, ahead of only Tatura.

This year Kyabram has recruited Singh and his friend Lincoln Withers, a former teammate at Darwin club Waratahs. AFL fans might remember Withers as a former Carlton reserves midfielder.

Kyabram president Peter Croxford said yesterday the Bombers were in the hunt for a couple more big signings. It promises to be an interesting year for his club.

By Paul Daffey

This article first appeared in The Age on Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

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