IN 2019, Sam Powell-Pepper becomes the seventh Power player to design an Indigenous guernsey for the Port Adelaide Football Club.

Port Adelaide’s Director - Aboriginal Programs Paul Vandenbergh says he is extremely proud of the way Port’s Indigenous players have embraced designing the guernseys over the years.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do over the last couple of years is actually embrace our players to design the guernsey,” Vandenbergh said at press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

“I think they get a lot of gratitude out of it. It empowers them.

“They feel really proud, especially when they involve their family and community into the actual design.”

Vandenbergh says he, and the entire club, are proud of Powell-Pepper’s design, and how much it means to the 21-year-old.

“He’s done fantastic. He’s done really well and I’m really proud of him,” he said.

“He had a vision of what Port Adelaide meant to him.

“Acknowledging Alberton. Acknowledging the fans, members. Acknowledging the 46 brothers that are on the one heart. Acknowledging the Port River which is significant for us.

“He really thought quite long and hard about it and then we were just trying to come together with the symbols and how we would represent that on the guernsey.”

The Power will wear their 2019 Indigenous guernsey on three occasions this season, starting with this weekend’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round clash against Hawthorn.

They will also wear it at home against Geelong in Round 14, but most significantly, it will be on show on the international stage when the side meets St Kilda in Shanghai in Round 11.

It’s something Vandenbergh believes is a powerful step forward for the football club and Indigenous culture.

“By the club coming together and supporting us wearing the guernsey and having an Indigenous theme to it this year, is quite a powerful statement,” he said.

“It might just open up they eyes a little bit internationally about who we are as people, and we want to get our message across as far and wide as possible.

“There are a lot of similarities in our cultures around food and dance, and what it means to their people and what it means to our people.”

Current players Paddy Ryder (2018) and Karl Amon (2016), as well as former players Nathan Krakouer (2017), Chad Wingard (2015), Brendon Ah Chee (2014) and Jake Neade (2013) have all designed Indigenous guernseys for the club.