Four boys and two staff spent four days in Melbourne with the big football game last Saturday night.

The trip was a reward from the Clontarf Foundation for the boys’ efforts at school.

It was also the second of two Indigenous round football trips with boys from Orange attending an NRL game at Cronulla the week before.

They played an Oztag game on the ground and were part of the pre-game activities.

The Clontarf Foundation is run at the Canobolas Rural Technology High School.

Operations officer Matty Georgiou said the scheme was for boys in years 7-12.

“Our mission is to get the boys to school and help them get a job after school,” he said.

“Attendance, they’ve got to be meeting 80 per cent attendance a term.

“Sport is like the carrot, we need a carrot to dangle there to get the boys to school.”

Events coming up include taking 17 boys to Tamworth for a rugby league carnival.

Year 10 student Jack Wilson and Year 11 student Cal Naden said the trip to Melbourne had been amazing.

And Cal even got to shake the hand of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as he walked past.

“[There was] a lot of people there, it was a good experience,” he said.

Jack’s highlight was being with the others.

“Probably the bonding part of going into Federation Square to watch everyone get involved in Indigenous culture,” he said.