Opportunity knocks: All Stars call up showcase for success

“I think the marvellous part about this game.

“People talk about some of the top line players not being available for whatever reason … but for me, I think importantly what it does is provide these guys with an opportunity. To see them walk into camp and they've just got a big smile on their face, you can see they're really enjoying the opportunity.

“I think if you look at some of their ages like Brent and Ollie, and they haven't played NRL; what a marvellous chance they've got to actually go out and put themselves in the shop front window.”

So far, only nine male players have represented their culture in the Indigenous team before playing an NRL match – and some of those never made that next step in their footballing careers.

However, as the team’s Torres Strait Island cultural advisor Michael Bani shared with the new players, even if they didn’t end up playing NRL, being part of this game was something to be proud of.

He himself achieved the milestone of playing in the NRL, even playing with Manly in the year they won the 2007 grand final, but he never achieved his goal of playing in an All Stars game. This year, he has been able to experience being part of it as a member of Griffiths staff, saying it had taken him more than 10-years post-retirement to “crack the team”.

The significance of that was not lost on Pascoe, who was recently upgraded to the development list at the Gold Coast Titans.

A star for the Ipswich Jets, he was hoping to build on his Queensland Cup player of the year winning season in 2025.

“To be honest, it's kind of my own little history that I've got, a part of history as there's only a few boys all up between both teams that have debuted before they played NRL,” Pascoe said.

“Just to be a part of it, it's a good step for me now.

“I'm just loving the culture side of things and the footy side of things, I can't wait for Sunday.”

Woolf has played against Pascoe in both Cup and at the Koori Knockout, where as a member of Griffiths’ Newcastle Yowies side, took down his fellow hooker’s Bourke Warriors in the 2025 grand final.

Ticking off 100 games in the Hostplus Cup earlier this year, the Redcliffe rake – who had been training with the NRL Dolphins squad during pre-season – celebrated his 28th birthday in camp. Some bad injuries, including a ruptured ACL, two shoulder reconstructions and a grade four hamstring injury in the back end of last year, could have derailed his football career, but perseverance has paid off with a special call-up.

“If you'd asked me last year if I'd be playing All Stars now, I would've told you that you were dreaming,” Woolf said.

“It wasn't even on my radar, but a couple of things sort of fell into place and I've gotten an opportunity.”

In selecting Woolf, Griffiths was rewarding not only his footballing potential, but in this arena, highlight his off-field achievements as well, having completed a law degree and leading a program working with Indigenous youth.

“I think, importantly, when I talk about opportunity leads to success, the success that these players will have mightn't be necessarily on the football field,” Griffiths said.

“The footy's good and it's great and we want to see them have success there, but if they don't, it's away from there where we really need to have success and bridge the gap and drive self-determination for Aboriginal people.”

For Woolf, the camp was also helping to enrich the squad’s own knowledge of culture in order to help it grow.

“I think that's important; we were speaking about it, breathing life back into a culture that everybody thinks is dead and buried,” Woolf said.

“Having us up there doing dancing, shake-a-leg, speaking language; people that the kids idolise, speaking the language and doing the dances, it's going to make it a lot easier for those kids to want to take part in that sort of thing when they get older."

Tohi is another to come through a pathway of both Cup and Knockout footy to the All Stars team after he was a late call-in for Ethan Roberts who was withdrawn from the squad.

Also sharing a Tongan background, the North Sydney Bears lock said after a tough year where he “threw the towel” and “reached the lowest of the low that an individual can reach”, starting this year with the All Stars experience in Hamilton was a blessing.

“Coming into a camp like this, you learn culturally, you learn about your background, you learn about people and then you see how many people actually care about you as an individual too,” Tohi said.

“I'm really grateful to, to represent the people that, especially my mum, to represent her side and represent the person that really never left my side. She never really gave up on me, so to be here representing her and her and my grandma and all my aunties, I'm really grateful and I can't wait.”