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Since the Victorian Football League (VFL), which is now known as the Australian Football League (AFL), was formed in 1897, there have been 178 known players of Indigenous Australian heritage that have played in a senior VFL/AFL match, and 11 known players of in the AFL Women's since the inaugural season in 2017. A senior VFL/AFL or AFL Women's match is an Australian rules football match between two clubs that are, or have been in the past, members of the VFL/AFL or of the AFL Women's. A senior VFL/AFL or AFL Women's match is played under the laws of Australian football, and includes regular season matches, as well as finals series matches. It does not include pre-season matches, interstate matches or international rules football matches. The list is arranged in alphabetical order by surname.
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The first recognised Indigenous Australian player to play in a senior VFL/AFL match was Joe Johnson who played 55 games for Fitzroy from 1904 to 1906, and was a member of Fitzroy's dual premiership-winning sides of 1904 and 1905. Gavin Wanganeen (Essendon and Port Adelaide) was the first Indigenous Australian player to play 300 games, and Shaun Burgoyne is the current record-holder of most games played by an Indigenous player with 407 games for Port Adelaide and Hawthorn from 2002 onwards. [1]
As of the 2024 AFL Season, there are 64 Indigenous players listed on a clubs list.
The Fremantle Football Club, initially under inaugural coach Gerard Neesham, have been strong supporters of Indigenous players. They have had 34 Indigenous players represent their club in AFL matches, [2] and hold the record for most players in one game, with eight in Indigenous Round (Round 10), 2017. [3]
The two Western Australian teams, Fremantle and West Coast, have both had the most Indigenous players on their list, with 36 and 35 Indigenous players respectively.
