Port Adelaide Football Club has been awarded $75,000 from the AFL First Nations Impact Fund to rebuild First Nations participation in South Australia’s SANFL talent pathways.

The Club will match the AFL’s investment with $75,000 of its own, bringing the total value of the SANFL First Nations Talent Pathway Fund to $150,000 for the 2027 season.

Funded through royalties from Sir Doug Nicholls Round merchandise, the Impact Fund supports initiatives aligned with the AFL’s First Nations Strategy. Port Adelaide’s application was successful through a competitive expression of interest process.

The program will be coordinated through the Port Adelaide NGA and delivered with aligned SANFL clubs. It will provide travel and accommodation support for First Nations players, fund dedicated First Nations Project Officer capacity at SANFL clubs and strengthen family engagement and culturally safe support.

Most significantly, the program responds to a significant decline in First Nations representation. First Nations players on AFL lists have fallen to 62, the lowest number in 20 years, and the cause is cost and structural barriers, not talent. In the season 2000 alone, Port Adelaide fielded 15 to 20 First Nations players across its junior grades, more than the entire SANFL U16 to U18 competition has today.

Port Adelaide Projects Officer and IDP Shaun Burgoyne said the club was honoured to receive this funding.

“We’re very grateful to the AFL for backing this program through the First Nations Impact Fund. This investment highlights that the AFL and Port Adelaide are aligned in our thinking. First Nations talent hasn’t gone away and with the right support we can open the door again for young First Nations players right across South Australia,” Burgoyne said.

“This investment helps remove the barriers of travel, accommodation and connection that can prevent talented First Nations kids from having an opportunity to progress from their communities into the SANFL talent pathway. Through our NGA Program and working with our aligned SANFL clubs, we’ll put real support around players and their families, so the next generation can focus on playing footy, being part of an SANFL Club and ultimately chasing their AFL and AFLW dreams.

“Port Adelaide’s relationship with First Nations communities goes back generations, from the Port to the Eyre Peninsula and beyond. That trust is something we never take for granted and this program builds on it by bringing our aligned SANFL clubs into those relationships, so the connection lasts well beyond this funding.

“I know what this pathway can do because I’ve personally lived it. When I came through Port Adelaide’s junior programs in the late 1990s, there were up to 15 First Nations players in our SANFL junior teams and that was the norm. That’s where we need to get back to and as a game we should be aiming higher than where we are now. This funding is a big step towards that.”

The Club will report progress to the AFL and share learnings from the initiative to inform future investment across other leagues and club talent pathways.