ALICE Springs holds a special place in the heart of the Narrm Football Club.

It’s a unique town in the middle of Australia, some referring to it as the gateway to the Red Centre, with its famous vibrant earth and connecting roads to the ‘Aussie’ outback.

In the summer, temperatures average a max of 36 degrees, the ground is as dry as the heat and the grass is often yellow.

In the winter, the mercury can drop to as low as four degrees and, in the rare times it does rain, you’d be considered lucky to see the bright red dirt turn into bright red mud and the normally dry Todd River (slightly) transform into an actual body of water.

The MacDonnell Ranges loom over the small city, their imposing beauty making Traeger Park (the main footy oval) arguably the best backdrop in the AFL.

The Arrernte People, the Traditional Custodians of the land, are overwhelmingly kind with welcoming faces embracing the Dees each year they visit.

Alice Springs has become Narrm’s home away from home these past 11 years, the club’s first game at Traeger Park in Round 11 of 2014.

This was the beginning of the club’s now strong relationship to the Red Centre. Throughout the last 11 years, Narrm has played 12 games across its AFL and AFLW programs at Traeger Park, while also visiting surrounding communities for football clinics.

Now, the club’s connection runs even deeper, with Ricky Mentha Jnr joining the Dees last year via the Rookie Draft.  

Mentha, an Arrernte man from West Alice Springs, became Narrm’s first player drafted from the town through their Next Generation Academy, marking an important moment in the club’s history.

Despite travelling 2,250kms down to Narrm to take a chance on AFL, the young Demon still considers Alice Springs home.

Normally a quiet and reserved person, when Ricky sat down to talk about his love of his hometown, he lit up describing his life and memories of Alice Springs.

“It’s hot, sometimes cold, heaps of dirt, hills, not many buildings,” Ricky said.

“But I just love how everyone is really connected there, it’s a pretty great place, everyone is really welcoming.”

After being drafted last November, he made a return home in January with a bit of a different feel to previous visits. This time, he was coming back as an AFL player.

“I felt famous,” he laughed.

“Everyone ran right past [Jake Lever and Jack Viney], all my family coming up to me to get my signature, which I didn’t expect.

“Everyone got around me, I had heaps of people coming up and congratulating me.

“It was good to catch up with family and have that support.”

Ricky grew up playing a combination of football and basketball, his weekdays spent going to school and then meeting up with friends and family for a kick or to shoot some hoops once the school day was done.

He loved both sports equally but acknowledged that the town’s love of footy was particularly special. 

“There are six football teams in Alice, so we’d all just play each other every few weeks,” Ricky said.

“I used to play for the Pioneer Eagles and our rivals were the South Kangaroos, we used to always have good matchups.

“They’re all family though, so we’d get into each other on the field and then hang out after the game. It would’ve been pretty good to watch.”

As you can probably tell already, family is a big part of Ricky’s life and something he really cherished growing up, surrounded by people he knew wherever he went.

“There was a town camp that I grew up in called the Trucking Yards,” Ricky said.

“There were about 20 houses, and everyone was family.

“We were all so close.”

Culture is another major aspect to Ricky’s life, both now and when he lived in Alice Springs. It’s something that helped keep him connected to his family.

Hunting, gathering bush tucker or spending time at cultural spaces were just a few of the things his friends and family would get up to on weekends to stay connected as Arrernte People.

“We’d go to the block, well we’d call it the block, but it’s basically a farm,” Ricky said. 

“It’s probably around 40 minutes from Alice towards West of Alice near Stanley Chasm. That’s where we’d go to chill out on the weekends after footy.

“We’d go hunting, get kangaroos or honey ants, get some bush tucker to eat.

“We’d go see family, or go to Stanley Chasm, there’s a few water holes there that were pretty good spots to go.”

It’s no secret that Alice Springs and Narrm are quite different, so the change was unsurprisingly a bit difficult at first for the young Demon.

After a few bouts of early homesickness, he settled into life in Narrm and life as an AFL player.

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t itching to get back home at any opportunity he can.

“I had dreams of playing AFL, but didn’t expect it to happen,” Ricky said.

“So, the move to [Narrm] was hard at first…and then footy became busy, and it’s kept my mind off missing home.

“I miss all the cultural stuff we would do, it’ll be good to back there and learn few more things.

“I miss Alice mostly because of my family, hopefully I can get back up there soon.”