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The Western Bulldogs are making a concerted effort to ensure Indigenous talent call Whitten Oval home in the future after a season without an Indigenous player on their AFL list.
Club president Peter Gordon said the club now had the personnel and resources to create an environment that would meet the needs of young Indigenous people who might join the Bulldogs as an AFL or AFLW player or work at the club.
Gordon said the club was determined to remedy any disconnect between the club and Indigenous people that may have existed in the past telling club members at a forum on Tuesday part of the question the club was continually asking themselves was how they were going to attend to the needs of a young Indigenous player in the 21st century.
‘‘It seems to me it’s the right thing to do as a community and a club that embraces diversity and our indigenous history,’’ Gordon told The Age.
Former Bulldogs player Brett Goodes, the brother of former Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes, is driving the whole-of-club approach as the club’s Indigenous Liaison Officer in an approach Gordon said was understated.
Goodes is one of 18 Indigenous players to play with the Western Bulldogs with three of the 18 – Joel Hamling, Jarrod Harbrow and Liam Jones – now at other clubs while former Bulldog Michael McLean is one of the most respected footballers in the club’s history.
‘‘We can’t solve that problem overnight and we have tried to take a multi-faceted approach to it,’’ Gordon said.
He said he was heartened by the way the club had embraced Goodes’ initiatives and the Reconciliation Action Plan released last year underpinned their approach with Belinda Duarte, who was the inaugural director of Richmond Football Club’s Korin Gamadji Institute, to officially join the club’s board at their next AGM.
‘‘Belinda has many skills and joins the board for many reasons, but one of them is that she is a proud Indigenous woman with a great track record in AFL footy,’’ Gordon said.
All-Australian Chad Wingard chose to join Hawthorn during last year’s trade period instead of the Bulldogs who were very interested in securing the former Port Adelaide forward.
Gordon told members that although he did not know what drove Wingard’s decision it was logical to suspect that the absence of Indigenous players on the Bulldogs list potentially put them ‘‘behind the eight ball’’ in securing Wingard. He said it made sense to ensure the club was not waiting for an Indigenous player to join their list to get the environment right with the club excited at the prospect of securing NGA academy member Jamarra Ugle-Hagan who the Bulldogs will have priority access to in the 2020 national draft.
‘‘We might potentially draft two or three [Indigenous players] in any particular year and they will be a part of a seachange of the history and culture of the club and will be working alongside good people like Belinda and Brett,’’ Gordon said.
