Over the years, many great national sports achievers from Gippsland have made us proud. And that pride continues today with some outstanding young talent across a variety of sports.
Three Dunkleys from Sale and Yarram are rockin’ the footy and netball worlds. Brothers Josh and Kyle are at AFL clubs Western Bulldogs and Melbourne Demons respectively, and sister Lara, previously with Victorian Fury and Melbourne Vixens, is currently on the Queensland Firebirds roster.
Together the siblings have a web site called JKLD – ‘Josh Kyle Lara Dunkley’ – which was launched following an iso series for SEN called The Dunkley Diaries.
The trio says JKLD was designed to help their fans get a behind-the-scenes insight into being elite athletes and how they train, eat, rehabilitate, and utilise their time together.
Added to that, the Western Bulldogs web site has a new video series called Cooking with Dunks, in which Josh shows off his talent in the kitchen. They say “the young gun’s cooking skills might catch you by surprise.”
“While most of us will never be able to match Dunkley’s footy prowess, we can at least follow in his footsteps in the kitchen while Melbournians are adjusting to another extended period of coronavirus lockdowns,” the club says.
Among Gippsland’s other elite young athletes is Port Adelaide AFL player Xavier Duursma. Before Covid kicked-in we had a fascinating sit-down with Xavier at his home in Foster, during which we learned that to make the most of his natural skills, he has always been wise enough to listen to and learn from key figures in his football and personal development.
We encourage you to check out our story about Xavier HERE.
Port Power players, like many others, are pumped up by music, which the club shares with the fans via Beats By. With Xavier set to return today after being sidelined by a hamstring injury, Port selected him to make their latest Beats By playlist.
Our talented 20 year old went for some old school Springsteen and a bit of Kanye West. Check out his six selections here:
Gippsland’s many talented young players go beyond footy and netball.
In the world of professional basketball, we learned this week that hot young basketballer Jack White of Traralgon has just signed a three year deal with NBL club Melbourne United. The 22 year old is returning from four years at Duke University in the USA where he studied and played in the elite college basketball system for the Blue Devils – the last two years as captain.
Josh, Lara, Kyle, Xavier, Jack and many others like them have worked hard over many years to reach their goals. Such efforts require dedication, self-discipline and focus. And the five we mentioned still have a long way to go, as they are still only in their early 20s.
These qualities, and the maturity at the foundation of those qualities, should be acknowledged and celebrated.
Gippsland Goodness 