Fairfax journalist Mike Cockerill explains why football’s ethnic clubs are a strength rather than a weakness. “There’s a couple of points I needed to make – one being that an ethnic club doesn’t need to be mono-ethnic club, which I think a lot of people don’t understand. There’s been a lot of development in the last 10/15 years.

“I’ve been around for a long time and it’s always been ‘us’ vs ‘them’ – ‘us’ being whatever you want to call mainstream Australia against ‘them’ – being those from other countries with this incredible passion for the game. We’ve fallen into this trap for the last 60 years where you have to be in one camp, or the other…

“I believe it’s important to look at the big picture and realise that the game would benefit if everyone understood each other.” LISTEN NOW.