DARREN MONCRIEFF
Thursday, June 30, 2011
INDIGENOUS players from the nine West Australian Football League clubs should have an extra spring in their step this weekend and next when they suit up for Rounds 15 and 16 during the WAFL's NAIDOC Week celebrations.
The league will once again acknowledge the role Indigenous people have played in football in the west with its annual WAFL NAIDOC Round.
The WAFL clubs' players will wear Indigenous-themed jumpers created by Aboriginal artist Richard Walley (Swans Districts jumper pictured) and the umpires will also wear like-themed outfits.
It continues a tradition started by the WAFL several years ago, beginning with South Fremantle and Claremont playing for the Jimmy Melbourne Cup match in 2007.
Melbourne is the first recorded Indigenous person to play organised senior football in Australia when he played for West Perth in 1900, and the first to win a premiership (1901).
While there appears to be a 50-year gap between his and Len Hayward’s premiership success with South Fremantle (1950), the trickle of Indigenous players grew to a flood, particularly in the 1970s at league level.
There will be several NAIDOC-themed events at each of the WAFL games this weekend (and next weekend for the team coming back from its bye).
NAIDOC Week is held nationally, and this year it will run from July 3-10.
* See the WAFL’s Indigenous player list here: Indigenous footballers in the WAFL
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Last Modified on 30/06/2011 14:14