There are few people in the country who know as much about Australian Rules football as Grey Morris. 

After three decades in sports journalism and a swag of awards, he has built an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game and its history. 

In retirement, he has turned his talents to writing a book about Mark Motlop, a member of one of the Territory’s great sporting families. 

“The book is much more than the life history of Mark – it’s about Indigenous history and life in the Northern Territory.” 

Grey had a humble childhood. 

He was raised on a dairy farm in the South Gippsland region in Victoria. His father Ted was a footy fanatic, who was banned from competing in the local league after punching an umpire in the face. 

His mother Dorothy was a nursing sister. 

At six years old, Grey’s life drastically changed when he came home from school to find his swing set and slide missing from the family’s front yard – the family was moving to the remote Central Australian Aboriginal community of Papunya. 

“I was told we were going to the Northern Territory for Dad’s work and I asked Mum: ‘Where’s that?’” 

Grey and his father, brothers and sisters found the remote desert township couldn’t have been more different from life on the farm in Victoria. 

“It was my first contact with Aboriginal people. In my first year at school, it was me and five Aboriginal kids in class.” 

It was here, in the heart of Australia, that Grey truly fell in love with Aussie Rules; he remembers watching the local side Papunya play matches against other Aboriginal communities like Areyonga and Yuendumu. 

Over the next few years, Grey’s family slowly moved their way around the NT as their father worked as a farm manager from Papunya to Alice Springs to Katherine. 

“For us kids, Katherine was Eden. It had a river, a permanent river, and in those days the Katherine River wasn’t the mess it is now. 

“My father took me fishing on the first day we were there. We looked over and the water was as clear as crystal and I saw all these coloured fish. I remember thinking, ‘This is bloody heaven.’” 

Grey finished his last two years of schooling in Perth before coming back to Katherine to do what many young people do: work odd jobs and think vaguely about his future. 

“I was at a party one night and a mate said, ‘My uncle’s a squadron leader in the Airforce. Why don’t we join?’ I thought about it the next day, rang him up and said, ‘Let’s go to Darwin and join up now’.” 

Grey spent the next nine years in the RAAF, reaching the rank of leading aircraftman. 

After his time in the Airforce, he moved to the small town of Kerang in northern Victoria to help on his parents’ two farms and do some part time work for their local paper, The Northern Times. 

He had no journalism experience but quickly proved his worth and was offered a full-time job as a general reporter who occasionally dabbled in sport. 

Grey returned to the Northern Territory after his father, who had smoked since he was 10, was diagnosed with throat cancer and applied for a job with the NT News in Darwin to be closer to his family. 

It was to be his working life for the next 27 years. His retirement in 2019 left an unbridgeable hole in the NT News sports desk. 

Grey enjoyed writing Mark Motlop: His Life and Times, although it was hard work. He was grateful to receive a grant from the NT Government. 

“Darwin needs these types of books, especially sports books. So, I sat down with Mark for over two and a half years.” 

“As Mark says in the book, he was more interested in sports than he was in school. All he did at school was bloody eat his lunch. And then all he could wait for was getting out after school for Aussie Rules time.” 

Grey’s life hasn’t been without hardship. He has had three brushes with death. 

He was diagnosed with meningitis of the brain at only eight years old. 

“The doctor told Mum that they didn’t hold out much hope for me.” 

Doctors told his parents that they doubted he would live through the night, but after 11 days in a coma, Grey woke up and eventually made a full recovery. 

Ten years later, while hunting kangaroos, he was accidentally shot by one of his mates with a 22-calibre rifle. The bullet shot clean through the right bicep after narrowly missing his chest. 

“There was blood everywhere. We went to the hospital and who’s on duty that morning? My mother.” 

The third time Grey escaped with his life was after working a long and exhausting shift on his father’s farm. He fell asleep at the wheel while driving back to Victoria on the Stuart Highway just north of Larrimah before waking up just as his car began careering down a ridge. 

“I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to recover and accelerate up the steep embankment. 

“The Big Fella upstairs must have been looking after me.” 

Mark Motlop: His Life and Times by Grey Morris can be bought from The Bookshop in Smith Street Mall, Darwin. RRP: $29.99 TQ