While he won't be lacing up the boots this weekend, South Sydney Rabbitohs young gun Braidon Burns will still be soaking in every bit of the Tribal League experience he can as the hotly anticipated clash gets underway.
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Burns, who was in Wellington on Friday to celebrate NAIDOC week with other NRL players, will be watching on and making time for family during the return to his birthplace of Dubbo, due to a dislocated knee suffered during the 2020 season.
Still, the significance of this weekend's all Indigenous fixture wasn't far from Burns mind, or from the minds of the other players on deck and expected to feature for the Wellington Castlereagh All Blacks - like Will Kennedy, Braydon Trindall and Tyrell Fuimaono.
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"With COVID, we've all been stuck in the bubble in Sydney, none of the country boys have been able to get back home, it's been a really good opportunity for us now that the season's over," Burns said.
"With the Tribal League on, it's a really good opportunity to come out here, obviously I've got family out here, but some of the other boys are coming out here and getting exposed to this environment and how isolated it can be out here."
"Being a Coonamble boy, this is pretty normal for me and I always enjoy being out here."
While many like Burns will miss out on getting to play because of COVID restrictions and other limits, he was excited at the prospect of a competition that will keep the Koori Knockout's cultural meaning alive even if it isn't directly linked.
"The Knockout, for a lot of blackfullas all over Australia, it's a huge thing, it's a big chance for so many of us to come together, the other instances where we're all together are usually more negative; funerals and things like that, so to have the Knockout every year is huge for everyone," Burns said.
"It gives us that sense of community, it lets us all get those cultures together and gets all the like-minded people together, having the Tribal League on will definitely help with that, everyone's still excited to be a part of it and will get a lot out of it."
The Wellington Castlereagh All Blacks are being tipped as an early favourite to take out the $100,000 prize ahead of kick-off and for good reason, with many of the region's best local players and a strong raft of NRL talent expected to combine in the ranks.
"It being a Castlereagh team, and joined with the Wellington team, it's going to be a lot of good players and probably a lot of players that haven't had the chance to play together before, so we're all pretty excited about the potential there," Burns said.
"A lot of those other teams that are playing are joining up together and combining from across the different regions and it should make for a really strong competition."
Kennedy who'll play in the first round this weekend along with Trindall, were quick to downplay the team's status as favourites.
"A lot of people have said that," Kennedy said.
"But there's a lot of good teams coming to play, it should be really good."
The event will start in earnest at 9.30am on Saturday, November 7 at Apex Oval, with a welcome ceremony, with games starting half an hour later.
The Wellington Castlereagh All Blacks will first feature at 12.30pm, where they'll take on the Wiradjuri Googars, another side with strong local and NRL ties.
