To celebrate the 10th year of the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Round, AFL Victoria put a call out for local clubs across the state to submit their 2025 Indigenous Round guernsey designs, with the most popular deigsn to be voted by the community.
AFL Victoria received a number of great submissions from local footy clubs in all corners of Victoria, from South Warrnambool on the Great Ocean Road through to Red Cliffs (near Mildura), each with their own unique story and design by a local Indigenous artist or player.
The designs were shared across AFL Vic social media channels, leaving the community to vote on which guernsey they would like to see celebrated as the best local footy Indigenous jumper in Victoria for 2025.
Votes came through in the thousands, and AFL Victoria is proud to announce that the winning design, voted for by the community, was Brunswick Dragons Junior Football Club, from the Yarra Junior Football League, designed by Emma Bamblett.
Read about the inspiration behind the design and the mobs it represents below.
Mobs: Wemba Wemba, Gunditjmara, Ngadjonji and Taungurung
The artwork is created to represent the Brunswick Dragons football club, and their journey to acknowledge and celebrate Aboriginal Culture and Peoples.
Front left side of the jumper is Bunjil the Wedge Tail Eagle, he is soaring across the jumper to care for the people and represent the connection to the Wurundjeri Lands andpeople who are the Custodians of the land on which the grounds is placed.
The left top side of the jumper Elders standing strong on the shoulder of the jumper under the stars. They are giving guidance and sharing their stories of the Land. In the centre of the jumper is the football oval, there is curved lines running across to highlight the players and their connection with the club.
Surrounding the oval is large purple circles to highlight all the families and Communities watching. To the left side of the jumper is circles connected with curved lines to show the teamwork of the players on and off the field. They are coming together learning and sharing.
Throughout the artwork there is gum leaves to highlight Aboriginal Culture and ceremony. There is curved lines with continuous lines throughout all over the artwork which represents respect. It is throughout out and in all elements of football and community.
On the back left bottom corner of the jumper is hill formations paying represents to the Wurundjeri peoples and their language is represented through the lines streaming across the back.