Brady Cooper always had dreams of being in the centre of the Melbourne Football Ground with his beloved Essendon.
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He just never realised it would be as an employee of Richmond Football Club and in traditional dress while performing a cultural dance to recognise his Indigenous heritage.
A former St Augustine’s College student and back-to-back Kyabram reserves premiership player, the 37-year-old took a lead role in the pre-match entertainment of the thrilling match between the Tigers and the Bombers — the 18th instalment of the Dreamtime at the ’G event.
This is Brady’s second year of involvement with the spectacular pre-match show that celebrates the AFL connection to Indigenous Australia.
He and his cousin, former Tatura star and Richmond VFL player Billy Cooper, were both in the centre of the MCG in front of 80,000 people.
The pair are part of the Richmond Football Club Laguntas Dancers, who are all either staff members or Richmond VFL-listed players. They performed alongside Essendon’s Koorie Youth Will Shake Spear dancers.
Brady works with Richmond Football Club at its Korin Gamadji Institute, established in 2011 as a centre of cultural strength and learning for Indigenous youth.
He is one of three children of former Kyabram and Lancaster star Lenny Cooper, his sister Kasey also at the game with her daughter Maddisyn.
The Cooper name is renowned in Goulburn Valley football circles, Brady’s grandfather Jeff was a two-time winner of the Morrison Medal and a member of the league’s Hall of Fame.
When he won the medal in 1958 he was also Kyabram’s leading goalkicker with 63 goals and a member of the premiership team of the same season.
He played 104 games for Kyabram and won two club best and fairest awards.
Brady and his brother Leonard, along with their father Len, had a lot to live up to as his cousin, Gary, was a three-time Morrison Medallist.
This is Brady’s second time performing on the big stage, last year was his debut performance.
He and Billy Cooper led the pre-game Dreamtime dance alongside Richmond Indigenous players Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Marlon Pickett and Rhyan Mansell.
Dreamtime at the ’G was first held in 2005, aiming to celebrate the Indigenous players of the AFL.
For the past seven years the Indigenous Round has been known as Sir Doug Nicholls, the only AFL player to have been knighted and the only Aboriginal person or AFL player to serve as a state governor.
Sir Doug Nicholls, who died at 82 years of age in 1988, had a strong connection to the district as he and his brother Herbert (Dowie) played with Tongala in the mid-1920s.
The street which leads to Tongala Recreation Reserve is known as Doug Nicholls Dve in honour of his contribution to Australia.
Sir Doug was lightning fast and won the Nyah and Warracknabeal gifts before playing 54 games for Fitzroy over six seasons until knee trouble forced him out in 1937.
He played alongside three-time Brownlow Medallist Haydn Bunton and 1933 Brownlow winner Wilfred (“Chicken”) Smallhorn.
Grand finals eluded him, but he represented Victoria twice.
Kasey Cooper, who is a learning support officer at St Augustine’s College, said she was extremely proud of her now Melbourne-based brother.
She said many people wouldn’t have realised that a Kyabram “boy’’ was leading the ceremony while in front of their television sets on Saturday night.
Brady attended St Augustine’s from Prep to Year 8 before completing his secondary schooling at Shepparton’s Notre Dame College.
He started his teaching career through the AFL at the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School (MITS), which offers a program for Year 7 students from the top end.
MITS is housed at Punt Rd, alongside Korin Gamadji Institute, where Brady started in 2016.
Eventually the two Indigenous learning facilities will be housed in the William Cooper Centre at Punt Rd, a $65 million development at the historic oval. It will not only be home to MITS and Korin Gamadji, but also the Bachar Houli Foundation.
Uncle William (Cooper) was the great-great-grandfather of former Tiger-listed player Nathan Drummond and was a strong activist from the 1930s in Australia — as well as a mentor of Sir Doug Nicholls.
Richmond has been a leader in the education space for Aboriginal youth through MITS and Korin Gamadji Institute.
“They fly students down and house them and school them. It is another program affiliated with the Richmond Football Club,” Kasey said.
She said while both of her brothers were very good footballers, injuries had gotten the better of them.
“They played for Kyabram, Brady was a back-to-back reserve-grade premiership player,” she said.
She said she and her younger brother had grown up as Essendon supporters, idolising the likes of Michael Long and Gavin Wanganeen.
“Brady was Essendon, but is now Richmond. I have stuck with Essendon, but Richmond is close to my heart,’’ she said.
Kasey and her daughter were sitting behind the goals for the match, which she said would probably be her only live match of the year.
Brady’s wife, Tiffany, was also on the ground, along with the couple’s two-and-a-half-year-old son Archie.
Earlier in the day Billy Cooper had played on the MCG in the VFL match between the Tigers and the Bombers.
He had 18 possessions in the two-point win, the Richmond VFL team coming back from a 16-point three-quarter time deficit to win the first of two thrillers.
Later that night another Goulburn Valley footballer, Seymour-raised Sam Durham, kicked the winning goal for Essendon just seconds before the final siren.
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