Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains images of deceased persons.<\/p>\n
Tributes are flowing for \u201cbeautiful\u201d and \u201cstrong\u201d former North Melbourne player Phoenix Spicer, who has died at the age of 23. <\/p>\n
The sister of Spicer\u2019s partner, Ky-ya Nicholson Ward, confirmed his death on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastated to share that last night we tragically lost our brother Phoenix Spicer. A beautiful, loyal and strong Nunggubuyu man,\u201d Dharna Nicholson-Bux said in the post. <\/p>\n
\u201cPhoenix will forever be our beloved brother, uncle, son, a partner to Ky-ya and a second dad to Jordy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts are broken with your sudden loss, you are watching over us in the Dreaming now my brother we will miss you!<\/p>\n
\u201cForever 23.\u201d <\/p>\n
The North Melbourne Football Club paid tribute to the ex-AFL player, describing him as a \u201cpopular\u201d and \u201cwell-liked\u201d player.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Club extends its deepest condolences to Spicer\u2019s friends, family and loved ones at this difficult time and ask that their privacy be respected,\u201d a team statement read.<\/p>\n
A proud Nunggubuyu man, Spicer hailed from Numbulwar \u2013 a remote community in East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n
His totem was a barramundi fish. <\/p>\n
He was selected to play with North Melbourne from South Australia in the 2020 national draft, and played 12 games for the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n
His final game took place in round 14 of the 2023 season. <\/p>\n
Spicer also played a role assisting Emma Bamblett with the design of the team\u2019s 2023 Sir Doug Nicholls Round guernsey, which featured each of the team\u2019s First Nations players\u2019 totems. <\/p>\n
He played 18 games for the VFL Footscray Bulldogs across the 2024 and 2025 seasons. <\/p>\n
North Melbourne president Sonja Hood AM said: \u201cPhoenix was only at the club for a short time but he was a popular and well-liked member of the playing group.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of the club, I would like pass on my condolences to Phoenix\u2019s family and friends at this extremely sad time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains images of deceased persons. Tributes are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,187436,7204,10185,209160,85,209159],"class_list":["post-390588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-newswire-news","tag-north-melbourne-kangaroos","tag-playing-group","tag-sonja-hood-am","tag-sports","tag-well-liked-member"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}