Eddie Betts’ grandfather died on the floor of a Port Lincoln prison cell. His own dad spent time in jail. When he was eight years old, he was already being harassed by the Kalgoorlie police – “the monarch” is what local Indigenous people called them. He was arrested for stealing a spoon. “It was a reality for us,” he writes in his autobiography, which was released this week. “It was an expectation.” Family violence and alcohol abuse were rife. The intergenerational side effects of colonialism and the stolen generation shaped him. “We became experts on managing situations, reading people, and diffusing tension.”
He was raised with strong female influences, and never went without. Family, culture and sport were everything. When he moved to Melbourne, he could barely read or write. He was aching for home, and for his community. His first AFL coach was Denis Pagan, a ferocious figure. His first opponent was Glenn Archer, one of the toughest footballers to play the game. His first goal of the year award netted him a Toyota Aurion. Shortly after, he was pulled over by two police officers, demanding to know whose car he was driving.
