{"id":663188,"date":"2026-05-11T04:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663188\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T04:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:56:09","slug":"afl-to-plough-funds-into-addressing-racism-as-league-grapples-with-indigenous-drop-off-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663188\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL to plough funds into addressing racism as league grapples with Indigenous drop-off | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL<\/a> will divert around $300,000 from Indigenous guernsey sales towards initiatives designed to address culturally unsafe environments and racism, as the league grapples with a growing trend of First Nations players leaving the game.<\/p>\n

The number of Indigenous players in the league has dropped every year since its peak of 87 in 2020, to now where it sits at 62. Under its five-year strategy drafted last year, the AFL has targeted an increase to 89 by 2030.<\/p>\n

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said First Nations teenagers are getting drafted at a higher rate than their overall share of the league, but more work needs to be done to ensure players can fulfil their potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did see last year was nine Indigenous players drafted in the men\u2019s competition, which was a bigger proportion of the 80-or-so players drafted \u2013 percentage-wise, that was a really high percentage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what happened was, at the same time, we had 11 Indigenous players delisted, so that\u2019s why the number went down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The typical career for an Indigenous player is approximately one year shorter than that of a non-Indigenous player. The trend is evident even in the careers of high-profile, proven performers such as Willie Rioli, who retired last year at age 30.<\/p>\n

Dillon said there are no \u201ccookie-cutter\u201d solutions, and the league has introduced a subcommittee to look at ways of growing Indigenous numbers. There is also a working group considering dedicated First Nations list spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the players are there. Would we like even more? Absolutely, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing that work,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not only just about identifying, it\u2019s then when the players are on the list, how can we make sure that an Indigenous player stays on the list as long as any other player does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL expects the newly-launched First Nations impact fund will receive around $300,000 this season.<\/p>\n

Clubs are able to access the funding by pitching initiatives to support the league\u2019s First Nations strategy, which include creating culturally safe environments and calling out and addressing racism.<\/p>\n

St Kilda\u2019s Bradley Hill said he didn\u2019t know exactly what the cause for the drop-off was, but he believed there is still more to be done to help young Indigenous players realise opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up as an Aboriginal young kid I know how hard it can be as a teenager, whether it\u2019s getting to training, getting people committed to their teams,\u201d said the Noongar man and three-time premiership player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know sometimes it is difficult for us to get there, whether it\u2019s money, travel, there could be a lot of things that we could do to make it easier for the younger boys coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill said there was a \u201cpositive outcome\u201d to last month\u2019s incident<\/a> when Hill and others at the Saints took exception to a comment by coach Ross Lyon described as \u201ccasual racism\u201d, but he did not want to elaborate further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s already been out there in the newspapers and stuff, I probably don\u2019t need to touch on that again,\u201d he said. \u201cI think you guys all know exactly what went on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL will divert around $300,000 from Indigenous guernsey sales towards initiatives designed to address culturally unsafe environments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-663188","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663188","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=663188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}