Victoria Stone-Meadows

This weekend the Crocs will take on the Manunda Hawks at home for the Sir Douglas Nicholls Indigenous Round.

The team will be wearing special guernseys designed by local Indigenous artist Davinder Hart to mark the occasion.

The Indigenous round symbolises culture, respect, recognition, commitment, and is an acknowledgement to our Indigenous players, Club participants and the wider Indigenous community for their contribution to AFL.

Crocs player Josh Mawson, who moved to the region from Hamilton in Victoria to join the club, said it’s great to have Indigenous culture recognised by AFL Cairns. 

“It's great to be part of it as player and great what the club and league does in general,” he said.

“It is really nice to be acknowledged and it should be good game and my parents are coming up for the weekend so it’ll be great to see them again.

“It’s really good of AFL Cairns and what they do and they do a great job, especially smaller leagues getting behind it is also really good.”

The AFL Indigenous Round in named for Sir Douglas Nicholls, an AFL and VFL footballer and the first Indigenous man to be knighted.

Crocs president Barry Lea said as well as the guernseys, the club will host a welcome to country and a smoking ceremony before the game. 

“We are really looking forward to it, it’s a great part of the day and it’s all about brothers getting together and we enjoy each others company then we play game of footy,” he said.

“It’s more significant than having thousands of dollars worth of ads, getting the message of respectt out there through sport is so powerful.”

Gary Young, AFL Cairns President, said the effort the clubs go to for Indigenous should be commended.

“Clubs put in a lot of effort game day with Welcome to Country, dancers, performers and offering traditional foods. Indigenous Round is about the Indigenous Culture on and off the ground,” he said.

The game kicks off at 2.00pm on Saturday at the Port Douglas Sporting Complex.