Port Adelaide wear pride on their backs for Sir Doug Nicholls Round

Port Adelaide will celebrate its proud Indigenous past while breaking with tradition when it hosts a Sir Doug Nicholls Round game.

Former Port players Shane Bond, Michael O’Brien and Byron Pickett at Adelaide Oval wearing the Indigenous jumper that has their names printed on it. Picture: Mark Brake

Port Adelaide will celebrate its proud Indigenous past while breaking with tradition when it hosts a Sir Doug Nicholls Round game for the first time in seven years on Saturday.

The Power’s specially-designed guernsey for this weekend’s clash with Hawthorn features the names of all 62 Indigenous players to represent the club including Gavin Wanganeen, Michael O’Brien, Byron Pickett and Shane Bond along with Chad Wingard, Jarman Impey and Shaun Burgoyne who are now at the Hawks.

The Power and Hawks have typically exchanged a gift such as a boomerang before the first bounce of their Indigenous round clash. But the two clubs have this year introduced a more personal touch for their Indigenous players by asking them to each bring something which represents their people to swap on game day.

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The idea came from Port’s Aboriginal programs director Paul Vandenbergh and Geelong premiership player Mathew Stokes. Karl Amon will hand over a Quandamooka dreamtime story book celebrating his mother’s Indigenous heritage on North Stradbroke Island.

“It’s a lot more personal than exchanging a gift that you might just see before the game and for the boys to get something from where they’re from, and with guys who we are close with, it’s something really special,” Amon said.

Amon was born and raised in Melbourne and said his understanding of his culture and identity had grown since he was drafted to Port Adelaide seven years ago.

“I was one of the ones who didn’t know much about my culture and certainly moving to Port Adelaide and the programs they have, I’ve learnt so much in that space, that’s a credit to Pauly and the staff and throughout the seven years here I’ve learnt so much.

“It’s something I am proud of and especially my mum who is a proud Indigenous Australian, I can’t be more thankful of that.”

He now has a tattoo on his ribs saying Noonuccal where the letter ‘l’ becomes the tongue of a snake to represent his animal totem, the carpet snake.

Port Adelaide is continuing to deliver its Aboriginal programs to the community despite the COVID-19 shutdown by taking its platforms online and earlier this month Vandenbergh and his staff took a single-engine plane to Mount Gambier for the day.

Its flagship program, the Aboriginal Power Cup which has been running since 2008 and uses football as a way of improving education outcomes for students, will be delivered at Alberton in November due to the COVID-19 interruptions.

“It’s obviously a challenging year right across the board and in the industry, unfortunately I’ve lost a few staff this year but we’ve tried to keep the programs afloat,” Vandenbergh said.

“But we have delivered a lot of online workshops which have been well received particularly into our remote communities where school was becoming a real safe haven for a lot of our students. And we’re looking forward to delivering the Aboriginal Power Cup.”

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