Tuggeranong Valley footy legend Gerrit 'Chief' Wanganeen.

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.