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  • 2 days ago
Gerrit 'Chief' Wanganeen speaks about the importance of the Indigenous round of games on Saturday, July 12 in Canberra
Transcript
00:00I'm Gerrit Wanganeen. I'm a Norunga man whose heritage goes back to the York Peninsula and
00:06Point Pierce in South Australia, playing about 397 games with the Tuggernaug Senior Footy Club.
00:14The thing that's really important for Indigenous round and for us to remember is just the impact
00:20that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have had on our footy club. So as far back as 1986
00:27when the senior club won the premiership, Les Turner and Ollie Lou, Ollie Kickett, they were key
00:33players in that premiership side. Ollie went on to be the president of the footy club and Jay Kickett
00:39in particular was a really standout player and a captain of our first grade side. Even in my time
00:46at the footy club towards probably the end of my playing career with the club, we proudly had the
00:52most Indigenous players of all of the clubs in the AFL Canberra competition. I think we had about 11
00:58players across our men's in the seniors. The players were lucky enough to be involved in some of the
01:06New South Wales OCT Indigenous carnivals and we were the first senior club in Canberra to really put a
01:12focus on Indigenous round and it is something that the club should be fantastically proud of because
01:19in a place like Canberra, sometimes there's not the opportunity to have some of the conversations
01:24that in the Indigenous round started and I've got a whole heap of really good mates that I've known
01:29through the football club that have felt comfortable to ask me questions and I'm really proud that the
01:34footy club could help out in that manner. I didn't play as many first grade games as, you know,
01:39an Ollie Kickett or a Jay Kickett or even, you know, nowadays the Logan Grays of the world that are
01:45still running around and but to be, I guess, recognised for some of the work that I was able
01:50to do off the field in some challenging times and, you know, the impact hopefully that Tugganong's had
01:57on the AFL competition. So it is a real honour.

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