YOU CAN BET ON IT, EDDIE IS HEADING NORTH
Carlton legend ‘99.99 per cent set to play for Magpies’
EDDIE Betts is going to Palmerston – it’s pretty much a done deal.
That was the strong rumour on Saturday, with the 350-game AFL legend poised to put pen to paper on a deal that will see him play for Palmerston in the 2021-22 NTFL season.
“I’m 99.99 per cent sure he’s going to Palmerston,” a wellplaced NTFL source told the Sunday Territorian.
“It will be massive for Territory footy.”
Betts playing in Darwin will be the biggest signing in NTFL history.
Over a decorated AFL season which started in 2005, he went on to kick 640 goals.
The 34-year-old’s decorated honour roll includes being a fourtime AFL Goal of the Year winner, three-time All Australian and leading goalkicker (twice at Carlton and four times at Adelaide).
The forward regularly wowed AFL fans throughout his career due to his wizardry, pace and silky skills in attack.
Betts – who has also been an admirable campaigner for racial equality off the field – will have a massive impact at Palmerston and throughout the Territory.
While Magpies officials have not yet commented publicly, talk at the club is that Betts is set to have an enormous positive influence on the many juniors who look up to him.
A big factor in all but getting Betts over the line is his close friendship with two-time Geelong premiership winner Mathew Stokes.
Betts is set to work with Stokes for AIME while in Darwin. AIME is a groundbreaking mentorship program.
For more than 15 years, the initiative program has put Indigenous people from marginalised communities in touch with people who can guide them to productive paths in life.