The annual Sir Doug Nicholls Round, formerly known as AFL Indigenous Round, sees the AFL community celebrate and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their contribution to Australian Football.
Sir Doug, who epitomised the spirit of reconciliation, played 54 games for Fitzroy and was a brilliant all-round athlete. The first Aboriginal person to be knighted, he also served as Governor of South Australia and was devoted to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In Queensland, community clubs and competitions will recognise Sir Doug Nicholls over the next two rounds of community football through various events on and off the footy field.
In our premier state league competitions, we’ve partnered with the Queensland Government to deliver Racism. It Stops With Me education sessions to our QAFL and QAFLW clubs.
Racism. It Stops With Me is a national campaign that provides tools and resources to help people and organisations learn about racism and stand against it by acting for positive change.
The sessions, which begin on Tuesday evening, will be delivered over the next two weeks.
It’s timely, with the AFL recently releasing an update to its Rule 35 vilification rule and a series of recommendations to ensure a more inclusive environment for the wider game, following an extensive review into the operation of the rule and its impact across elite and community football. {Read more here}
As part of our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement, AFL Queensland is again partnering with the Brisbane Lions, The Long Walk Foundation and Deadly Choices for the 2021 Long Walk.
The Long Walk recognises and celebrates the historic trek taken by Michael Long on 21 November 2004, walking from his hometown in the suburbs of Melbourne all the way to Parliament House in Canberra – more than 650 kilometres away – in an effort to get Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues back on the national agenda.
The walk will start at the Wheel of Brisbane in Brisbane’s South Bank and make its way through to the Gabba for the Sir Doug Nicholls round Brisbane Lions v GWS Giants clash.
Date: Saturday 29 May
Meet: 11:30am*
Start Location: South Bank Parklands, The Wheel of Brisbane
End Location: Gate 2, Gabba
*Walk commences at 12:00pm and will take approximately 45 minutes. The bounce is at 2:10pm.
In addition to The Long Walk, twenty young people from Aboriginal and Islander Independent Community School (The Murri School) and the Hymba Yumba Independent School will participate in the Little League U10’s Program, played as part of the NAB AFL Auskick half time program.
In the Toyota AFL Premiership, round 11 sees the Gold Coast SUNS travel to Darwin for their second home game in the Northern Territory when they take on Hawthorn at TIO Stadium.
Then, round 12 we will see Friday night footy in Alice Springs come to life as Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions do battle at TIO Traeger Park.
Both the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast SUNS will wear specially designed guernseys to commemorate the occasion.
The above photo was taken during the QAFL Sir Doug Nicholls Round in 2019
