The AFL has set itself the ambitious task of increasing the number of Indigenous players at the top level of the game to 10 per cent by 2030 from a 20-year-low, and is considering new incentives for clubs to recruit First Nations footballers.
The targets of 81 AFL and 29 AFLW players are among the key objectives of the AFL’s First Nations strategy, which has been shown to clubs and approved by the AFL Commission. There are 62 First Nations players on men’s lists in 2026, and there were 22 in the AFLW last year.
The AFL confirmed it is exploring with clubs ways to grow the number of Indigenous players on lists, including a dedicated list spot, in an attempt to turn around the worrisome decline.
“We will work with clubs to better understand what other incentives will be meaningful and aligned to KPIs,” said the AFL’s general manager of First Nations engagement, Taryn Lee.
The AFL identified retention as a major issue in their First Nations strategy, details of which were obtained by this masthead.
In the 2025 post-season, nine First Nations players were drafted in the national or rookie drafts, but 11 left the AFL, which reduced the number in the competition to 62, the lowest in two decades.
Port Adelaide’s Willie Rioli, a talented forward, Essendon’s Alwyn Davey jnr and Collingwood’s Ash Johnson were among those who were delisted or retired. Since then, Melbourne premiership defender Steven May has also retired, although the circumstances of the 34-year-old’s exit after a period of personal leave were unique.
Rioli’s retirement at the age of 30 was a surprise, and followed a difficult season during which he was suspended for a social media threat to an opponent, which Port said followed a culturally insensitive on-field remark to Rioli.
The league research found that First Nations players’ careers lasted, on average, one year less than other AFL players.
If First Nations players had the same attrition rate as the rest of the competition, there would be 12 more Indigenous players on AFL lists (74, not 62).
The same attrition issue applied to AFLW, where First Nations players’ careers, on average, lasted one season less than the rest of the competition.
Lee said there was a “significant challenge” in retention of Indigenous players in the game at the highest level, and the league was working to understand why First Nations players had been leaving the game earlier.
“Australian rules football is the national game, and it’s at its best when First Nations players are thriving on and off the field,” said Lee, a key figure in implementing Collingwood’s Do Better report.
She then worked with Hawthorn to help the club navigate their racism saga that stretched on from 2022 until last year and cost the AFL millions of dollars in compensation and legal fees.
“We have a significant challenge around retention, with more players leaving the system than entering,” said Lee, who authored the AFL’s First Nations Strategy.
“We’ve got more work to do to understand the reasons for that, and then what we need to do as an industry to start turning it around.
“Our focus is to better understand player experiences and club environments to support retention.”
The AFL First Nations Strategy had three key performance indicators:
- To increase the number of First Nations players and draftees for both AFL and AFLW;
- To increase employment for First Nations people “across all levels of the industry.” Only 2.25 per cent of non-playing roles at clubs/AFL – including coaches, administrators, recruiters and fitness staff – are First Nations people, which is below the national representation of Indigenous people (3.8 per cent).
- Reducing experiences of racism and discrimination by First Nations people in the game.
The proportion of AFL players with Indigenous backgrounds peaked in 2010, when there were 81 players in a 16-team competition. The highest number was 86 in 2020, in an 18-team competition – still more than 10 per cent of all players.
Since then, the number has steadily dropped, with clubs citing multiple explanations. The impact of COVID-19 on both First Nations communities and on club and AFL budgets has been cited as one explanation, while recruiters also blamed inadequate pathway programs run by the AFL. The AFLW cohort has dropped since 2023.
The impact of the upheaval from the Hawthorn saga and Collingwood’s Do Better report is impossible to quantify, but there is a view that clubs and recruiters have taken a more conservative path in drafting in the 2020s – which hurts First Nations players’ draft prospects – when there are fewer spots available.
The AFL provided grassroots/local football numbers for First Nations participation across Australia. Here, the picture was more encouraging. The number had increased from 33,573 in 2023 (6.4 per cent) to 42,738 in 2025 (6.8 per cent).
In the strategy, the AFL committed to “better talent pathways for First Nations (players)”. The AFL would use royalties from the Sir Doug Nicholls Round, about $350,000 per season, to support First Nations programs at club and community level.
The strategy summary highlighted 10 programs or organisations that would help the AFL meet its target for First Nations. These included the AFL’s Indigenous and Multicultural academies, the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre in Darwin, the Woomera and Flying Boomerangs (junior teams), and the clubs’ next-generation academies (NGA).
The AFL’s First Nations Advisory Committee has been upgraded to become a sub-committee for the AFL Commission.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.
