Adelaide forward Danielle Ponter says the Club’s decision to have the AFLW, AFL and SANFL teams wear the same Indigenous guernsey is a special step forward.
For the first time in the Club’s history, all three teams will wear the Indigenous guernsey with the same design.
Eastern Arrernte man Pat Caruso designed this year’s guernsey and it highlights the coming together of the men’s and women’s teams on their reconciliation journey, as well as acknowledging the impact that the many members of the Crows family have left on the Club since 1991.
Speaking on the Credit the Girls AFLW podcast ahead of the AFLW’s Indigenous Round this weekend, Ponter said the guernsey was reflective of the Crows’ ‘one club’ mentality.
She said it also helped boost the connection between the men’s and women’s players.
“It’s pretty significant and we started this whole process about 12 months ago,” Ponter said.
“The leaders of our team and the Indigenous players and the men’s team got together to put some ideas of what we wanted the jumper to represent.
“We were really big on the one club, one culture so we wanted to really push that and we sent that off to Pat and he’s come back with a really good design that represents both of us.
“I think the whole idea of both the men and women teams coming together is something so special.”
The Aboriginal adaptation of the crow on the guernsey sits at the centre of the guernsey, with the Kaurna shield perched proudly on its chest.
The male and female hands which make up the wings of the crow and the fingerprints on the feathers which wrap around the guernsey represent the imprint players, staff, members and supporters have left on the Club over its journey.
Ponter’s grandfather is from the Anmatyerre tribe in the Ti Tree region north of Alice Springs, and her grandmother from the Maranunggu tribe in the Daly River region.
The 22-year-old is excited to wear the guernsey this weekend as part of the League’s official Indigenous Round and then again in Round Nine to celebrate it in front of a home crowd against Collingwood.
“Indigenous Round has always been a very important time for me and my family to recognise the culture and celebrate the culture is something I love being a part of,” Ponter said.
“It’s not only the celebrating, it’s the educating, it’s the girls learning, it’s the girls asking questions.
“That’s something I’ll always look forward to and can’t wait to celebrate and share stories and share my culture with the girls and the crew at the Crows.”
Ponter, who is from Darwin, is in her fourth AFLW season with the Crows but this is the first time she has spent the full season in Adelaide as opposed to being a fly-in, fly-out player.
She told the podcast she has enjoyed the season so far and hopes the Crows can continue their strong form.
“We’ve got a great group of girls at the Crows at the moment and we are really focusing on enjoying our footy,” Ponter said.
“For me in particular I’ve got Erin Phillips, Ebony Marinoff, Chelsea Randall, those types of girls around me. I guess I am really trying to enjoy myself and learn from them while they are there.
“But no game is an easy game for us, we go in wanting to win every game and bring that same contest and pressure every game.”
