page_title: Liam Jurrah
section_title: AFL career
hierarchical_section_title: Liam Jurrah / AFL career
caption_attribution_description: English: Liam Jurrah at Subiaco Oval in July 2010
context_page_description: Liam Jungarrayi Jurrah is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played with the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League.
  Jurrah is also known as "Jungarrayi", an initiated member of the Warlpiri people who are based in Yuendumu, a small and remote Indigenous Australian community 300 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
  He is the first indigenous person from a remote community in Central Australia to have played senior football in the AFL.
context_section_description: Jurrah was recruited by Melbourne from the Yuendumu Magpies (CAFL) with the first selection in the 2009 preseason draft.
  Jurrah spent his first year in Melbourne living with friends and then with his partner, as well as fellow Melbourne player Austin Wonaeamirri.
  Prior to the 2009 AFL season, Jurrah was named to play for the Indigenous All-Stars representative side in a pre-season match against Adelaide in Darwin.
  His senior indigenous teammates at Melbourne, Aaron Davey, Matthew Whelan (both from Darwin) and Austin Wonaeamirri (from the Tiwi Islands), all played major roles in assisting Jurrah to adapt to life in Melbourne.
  In round 12 of the 2009 AFL season Jurrah made his AFL debut against Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Friday Night Football.  He kicked a remarkable goal whilst falling to the ground after attempting a specky in the goalsquare and also had two long kicks at goal touched on the line. In Melbourne's round 15 victory over Port Adelaide, Jurrah scored four goals and assisted in multiple other goals for which he was rewarded with an AFL Rising Star nomination. While the Demons struggled for success on the field he became a shining light for supporters. He was given the moniker "Warlpiri Wizard" for his scintillating style of play. He carries on the  tradition of highly skilled indigenous forwards set by the original Demon "Wizard" Jeff Farmer.
  In November 2009, Jurrah returned to Yuendumu with the Melbourne president Jim Stynes and Channel 7's Tim Watson. The trip was a chance for Jurrah's family and friends at Yuendumu to celebrate his achievement and a chance for the Melbourne Football Club to see where Jurrah had come from. A story about the visit was aired on Channel 7's Sunday Night program.
  Close to the start of the 2010 season, Jurrah required surgery for a dislocation of his shoulder. The injury was caused by an awkward fall during a practice match with the Adelaide Crows. Shortly after, Chris Connolly from the Melbourne Football Club announced that Jurrah would be out for approximately 16 weeks.
  Jurrah made a successful return to the senior Melbourne team, after spending several weeks playing with Melbourne's VFL affiliate the Casey Scorpions, kicking two goals in the Demons' round 15 win against Essendon.
caption: Jurrah playing for Melbourne at Subiaco Oval in July 2010
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ20", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver1.0", "Image DateTime": "2017:11:14 00:14:41", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2496", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5260", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5591", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:07:18 15:42:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:07:18 15:42:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "72", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "322", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "698", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2560", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1920", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5124", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "432", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "649cc8828a8260ceb5bbfcdda74b8626", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3948"}