THE co-coach of the Ltyentye Apurte footy team playing at the MCG, Victorian policeman Barry Randall, arrived in the central Australian Aboriginal community in February as part of the Federal Government intervention.

What he noticed immediately was that the community "lives and breathes football. From the age of four or five, kids walk around bouncing a football. There's barely a kid over five who doesn't own a football. They live in football gear."

Right from the start, Randall says, he tried to show the Aboriginal community he was "there for the right reasons". He and Ltyentye Apurte's two other policemen involved themselves in the construction of a new BMX track, which they coupled with a bicycle safety campaign.

They helped run the local basketball competition and Auskick. Asked what most surprised him, he says it was "the openness with which I was received".

How the East Aranda men from Ltyentye Apurte(formerly known as Santa Teresa), 80 kilometres from Alice Springs, got to play in the Dreamtime at the 'G curtain-raiser started last October when they boarded their community bus and drove 1500 kilometres to Darwin to play in the Defence Force Cup.

The Tiwi islanders have dominated indigenous footy in recent years and were hot favourites to win the competition. Ltyentye Apurte came from nowhere to win. It seems that only then did the team realise they had also won the right to play the curtain-raiser in tonight's Dreamtime at the 'G game.

One of those assisting the team's visit is Pitjantjatjara man Russell Smith, who works in Melbourne for the Torch Project. Asked what playing at the MCG means to the Ltyentye Apurte team, he replies, "It's gold. That's sacred turf to these fellas."

Co-coach Phil Alice is an Aranda man and a police aide. He says tonight's game means a lot to the old people in his community. "They're really proud these fellas have made it to the top level and come down here." Getting the team to the MCG for tonight's match meant finding $40,000. Marcellin College has a connection with the community through the Santa Teresa mission. Students from Marcellin raised funds. Richmond Football Club was approached. Not only did the Tigers donate the guernseys the Ltyentye Apurte team will wear tonight, they sent player Richard Tambling and former champion Dale Weightman to the desert community to conduct clinics.

The hunt was on for sponsors. A company building houses in the community offered money if members of the community painted the houses they were constructing. Team manager and club vice-president Jim Hampson says women joined in the work parties. Hampson says families are driving down from Ltyentye Apurte for the match. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Tonight's match may also be a first for the MCG in that the Ltyentye Apurte team includes a father-son combination, Glen and Bentley Moreen.

Asked what it means to be playing with his son, 36-year-old Glen says: "All you newspaper fellas ask that." Bentley, 18, a stocky midfielder identified by coach Barry Randall as one of the team's outstanding talents, has ambitions of making it in the AFL.

Hampson says: "These blokes have really played and trained above themselves to get here. We want to build on it and give kids in the community a different sense of what they can do with their lives."