MAKING people smile was Eddie Betts’ favourite part of playing AFL. 

While Betts never got the ultimate success of winning a premiership, he got by for 17 years making other people smile with his skills on field and his personality off the field. 

“For me, all I want to do is put smiles on people’s faces,” Betts said. 

“If I’ve done that, then I’m happy. I haven’t got a premiership, which is the ultimate goal, but if I’ve made people smile, my job here is done.” 

Before getting into the AFL system, Betts idolised his older brothers, wanting to follow them around and copy everything they do, including playing footy. 

“I grew up idolising my older brothers and I wanted to be like them, I wanted to play like them and I did everything they did,” he said. 

“When I got to the TAC cup, I played for the Calder Cannons and I was the only Aboriginal player on the side and it was hard for me, because it was the first time I’d played on a side being the only Aboriginal player.” 

Being an exciting player to footy fans and players alike, Betts touched on some of the things that make him excited in footy, especially the young and up and coming Indigenous talent. 

“I look at ‘Kozzy’ [Pickett], that’s some talent, that’s the next Cyril [Rioli] right there, ‘Kozzy’ can do what Cyril did and it’s crazy to see,” he said. 

“What Charlie Cameron is doing now at Brisbane is crazy and these young kids put smiles on my face.” 

As well as enjoying these young players strutting their stuff, Betts wants to put a strong emphasis on making AFL a safe space for Indigenous players, desperate to make a change in Australia. 

“We want to make that a safe spot for them to play footy as well and not be racially abused and I’m going to continue to support these young boys,” he said. 

“A lot of people are starting to have that conversation, starting to talk about it and call it out, because it takes courage to call it out.”