MITIAMO and Bears Lagoon-Serpentine will honour Indigenous culture on Saturday in their Loddon Valley league round seven clash.
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Both the Superoos and Bears footballers will wear specially designed Indigenous guersneys when they meet at Mitiamo in a Reconciliation Round match.
The day will feature AFL Hall of Fame member Nicky Winmar (251 games with St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs) as a special guest.
Winmar, who played between 1987 and 1999, was the first Indigenous player to reach 200 games when he achieved the milestone in 1997.
Mitiamo's guernsey has been designed by Crystal West, the B and C grade netball coach at the Superoos, while Bears' player AJ Edwards designed his club's Indigenous jumper.
West has been involved with the Superoos since 1998 and describes her design as showing "the current Superoos in front of a gathering place (Mitiamo) where people come together. You'll notice in the background white shadows of kangaroos, which were our legends that are no longer with us and the boomerang that come back to the club."
Edwards has been playing with the Bears since 2021, with his design representing the meeting of two clubs on a weekend with concentric circles, a boomerang symbolising those returning to the club each year, which is vital for any club to survive, a river representing the life of the town and a curved U shape that is a widely used icon in Aboriginal art symbolising a person.
The Bears' guernseys won't be worn as just a one-off, with the club intending to also use them as a clash strip for games against the likes of Inglewood and Pyramid Hill, while the Superoos will auction their guernseys off at a post match function.
The day will also feature a Welcome to Country ceremony before the senior game to be led by Trent Nelson, while medals will also be presented to the players adjudged the best for each team across all football and netball games.
On the football field Bears Lagoon-Serpentine (4-2) will go in as the warm favourites against the Superoos (0-5).
"We've got a lot of young blokes, so we definitely feel that it is growing into something positive... we've just got to stick together," said Mitiamo captain Luke Lougoon, a rare commodity at the club these days in terms of being a link back to the club's 2019 premiership.
"It's a long process and it doesn't happen overnight, but we've got the right people at the club and there's some good young players coming through who are helping to keep the club viable.
"We've got good people at the club and we'll keep moving forward."
While the Superoos are in the second year of a rebuild under senior coach Jon Varcoe, the Bears having been through a similar phase in 2016 when they were winless and are now rated among the top contenders to challenge the supremacy of Marong this year.
Although it's a team game with 22 players running out on the field every week, one player in particular for the Bears has dominated the headlines - new full forward Josh Mellington, who after just six games has already booted 57 goals.
"It's a good peace of mind to have a player of Josh's calibre down there in the forward line," Bears captain Charlie Gadsden said.
"We've probably struggled over the past couple of years to have that focal point down there.
"We've been trying to find numerous avenues to goal, whereas now we've just got that big focal point of a player with an enormous wealth of experience.
"He has been fantastic as well for the other boys up forward in giving them direction, so he has been massive for the team."
Behind Mellington's 57, the next highest goalkicker for the Bears are Andrew Gladman and James Rippingale with six apiece.
