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Boorloo (Perth) forward Sam Stubbs says the club is proud to be the first in the WAFL to temporarily change their name to honour their Indigenous heritage.
The Demons have adopted the Boorloo moniker across rounds 13 and 14 as part of NAIDOC Week, with the club saying the aim of the move was to “encourage positive and productive conversations about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture while generating awareness among the WAFL community”.
Stubbs told Sports Breakfast he was proud his club was taking a lead in the space.
“We’ve seen it in the AFL, a couple of clubs have changed names to honour the traditional names for their area,” Stubbs said.
“At Perth, we thought it would be a great initiative to be the first club to do that and highlight the traditional name for Perth. A lot of people may not have been aware of it, we just wanted to bring awareness to that, pay respect to the Whadjuk people.
“It’s something that the club’s very proud of.”
Stubbs, who also works as the club’s Indigenous Engagement Officer, designed the club’s NAIDOC jumper for this year, saying to be asked was a great honour.
“The story for this year’s design is based around two of our other senior Indigenous players, Simon Hayward and Chapman Jones,” Stubbs said.
“[The jumper] highlights their connection with the Belmont Junior Football Club, as Belmont’s a strong club in our zone and we get a lot of juniors coming through the ranks there so we thought we’d highlight their connection.
“Around the bottom of the jersey is where they sit with the Perth Football Club. Through the middle of it there’s highlights of their career, they’ve both won colts best and fairests at Perth and both graduated into the league program. Their families are on the back.”
The dynamic forward, who has kicked 14 goals in 11 games this season, is also a sensation on social media platform TikTok, boasting more than 137,000 followers.
“I think people just love seeing a little bit of Aboriginal culture and a little bit of footy stuff, a little bit of education,” he said.
The Demons come up against West Coast this Saturday at 2:10 pm at Mineral Resources Park before hosting South Fremantle at the same venue next Sunday.
IMAGE: Perth FC