Sir Doug Nicholls Round 2022: The greatest Indigenous AFL players to have ties to the South West

With the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round taking place this weekend, the South Western Times takes a look at some of the greatest Indigenous AFL players to have ties to the South West. Syd Jackson When you think of Indigenous AFL players from the South West, one of the first names that might come to mind would be Syd Jackson. After getting his start with the South Bunbury Football Club — where he won the South West Football League’s Hayward Medal twice as a teenager — Jackson had a stint in the WAFL with East Perth until he was recruited to the Carlton Football Club in 1968, where he eventually spent seven years playing 136 games and kicked 165 goals. During his time in the navy blue, Jackson was a two-time VFL premiership player in 1970 and 1972, and shone in both grand finals. In 2005 he was named in the AFL Players Association Indigenous Team of the Century, and became the Carlton Heroes’ inaugural inductee into the Carlton Hall of Fame the following year. Jackson’s legacy at South Bunbury lives on to this day with the South West Football League holding an annual Jackson/McGuire Cup match, typically played during the second Bunbury-South Bunbury derby each season. Neville Jetta He might have retired from playing at the AFL level last year, but Neville Jetta is continuing to make an impact as his coaching career begins. The Bunbury product was drafted to Melbourne Demons in 2008 after a stint with the Swan Districts Football Club, where he had won the Mel Whinnen Medal for being the best player in the Swans’ Colts grand final win that year. During his 13-year career with the Demons, Jetta played 159 games before retiring the day after Melbourne won the AFL grand final in Perth last year. Jetta was then added to the Collingwood team as a new development coach and soon won the Phil Walsh Memorial Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship for young coaches in the country. Lewis Jetta Neville Jetta is not the only one in his family that has made a big impact on the AFL game. His cousin Lewis got his start playing junior football with Carey Park before playing colts for Swan Districts where he was part of the club’s premiership side in 2007. After he was overlooked in the 2007 AFL draft, he returned to the South West and played for Bridgetown in the Lower South West Football League before returning to Swan Districts and eventually going on to be drafted to Sydney Swans in 2009. After playing 127 games for Sydney between 2010 and 2015, Jetta returned to WA when he was traded to the West Coast Eagles, where he played a further 75 games. The two-time premiership player and 2018 Chris Mainwaring medallist was eventually delisted at the end of the 2020 season. Marlion Pickett Hailed as one of the biggest success stories out of AFL, Marlion Pickett is already a two-time premiership player in just his fourth season. Having spent several years in Manjimup, Pickett played junior football for the Manjimup Tigers, including playing in a colts premiership for the side at just 14 years of age, before relocating to Perth. After drug addiction and crime saw him land in jail, Pickett continued playing footy while at Wooroloo Prison Farm and took up an opportunity to train with South Fremantle not long after his release before he was selected by Richmond in the 2019 mid-season rookie draft. Pickett eventually made his debut in the 2019 AFL grand final, instantly becoming a premiership player after just four months with the Tigers. Although Pickett has been suspended from playing in the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round this year after a heavy hit on Hawthorn’s Dylan Moore, he will still be making an impact having designed the jumper Richmond will be wearing during their match against Essendon on Saturday. Designed in collaboration with his partner Jessica Nannup, the story on the guernsey represents their family moving from Perth to Melbourne and pays tribute to each Indigenous player at the Tigers. His family totem, the Kaarak, a red-tailed black cockatoo, is depicted as flying to signify the family’s move across Australia. The big circle on the sash of the jumper represents the places they now call home. Troy Ugle Former West Coast Eagle Troy Ugle was another Indigenous player to get his footy career started in the SWFL, having spent time with Carey Park. Ugle was part of Carey Park’s 1986 premiership team when he started in the midfield and went on to receive the Pike medal as the best on ground during the Panthers’ 31.17 (203) to 14.11 (95) winning effort. The following year he joined Swan Districts where he won the club’s best and fairest medal at season’s end before moving to the Northern Territory and he was eventually recruited to the West Coast Eagles in 1988. Ugle played 43 games for the Eagles and kicked the same amount of goals before moving back to the WAFL for a further two-year stint at Swan Districts, eventually becoming a life member in 1999. Stephen Michael He might have been born in Wagin, but Collie-based Stephen Michael is widely considered one of the best footy players to have never played in the VFL. Michael was picked up by South Fremantle, where he played 243 games, after playing in the Great Southern town of Kojonup. During his 10-year stint with the Bulldogs, Michael won the Sandover Medal in 1980 and was part of the Bulldogs’ premiership side that same year as well as being named the club’s best and fairest player five times. He was also named the first Indigenous All-Australian captain in 1983 and became one of the inaugural inductees into the Fremantle Football Club’s Hall of Legends in 1995 before eventually being inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 1999. He was named centre half forward in the 2005 Indigenous Team of the Century. Now based in Collie, Michael’s sons Mat and Talan have both played for the Collie Eagles and the former ruckman also gave his name to the Stephen Michael Foundation, run by the South Fremantle Football Club. Nicky Winmar There’s a bronze statue of the most infamous moment in his career, but did you know Nicky Winmar spent some time at a South West football club? Born in the Wheatbelt town of Kellerberrin, Winmar is best known for his AFL stints with St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s after being picked up from South Fremantle. It was during his 11-year career at St Kilda that Winmar’s name became etched in Australian sporting history when he famously lifted his jumper while facing spectators and pointed to his skin in response to being racially vilified during the round four match against Collingwood in 1993. Nine years after making national headlines for that moment, Winmar had a stint at the Eaton Boomers Football Club in 2002. Isiah Winder Another current AFL player, Bunbury’s Isiah Winder continues to make an impact for the West Coast Eagles. Having started his football career with the Eaton Boomers, Winder had a stint in the WAFL with Peel Thunder before he was selected at pick 57 to join the Eagles in the 2020 draft. It did not take long for him to make his AFL debut, coming on as a medical substitute during the Eagles’ round four match against St Kilda last year. After Shannon Hurn suffered a calf injury, Winder ran on and scored a goal with his first kick, becoming the ninth West Coast player to do so.