Port Adelaide Football Club and Macron have unveiled the Indigenous Guernsey, the traditional sleeveless jersey associated with this historic sport. Designed in collaboration with defender Lachie Jones, with the help of his great-aunt Madeliene Dirdi, this special jersey celebrates the player’s journey to discover his Aboriginal roots, and the life and spiritual legacy of his grandmother.

The centrepiece of the Indigenous Guernsey is a brolga (Australian crane), the totem of the Yanyuwa people, the tribe to which Jones’s grandmother belongs, originally from Borroloola in Arnhem Land, south-east of Darwin. The footprints, lines and circles around the V on the front of the guernsey represent Jones’s grandmother’s journey, as a member of the so-called “Stolen Generation”, from Borroloola to Bute on the Yorke Peninsula, whilst the aqua-green symbols represent the people who helped her along the way. On the back of the shirt, the design featuring the brolga in the centre represents the place where his grandmother is laid to rest: Bute. Another symbol featured in the shirt’s design is the boomerang, an ancient tool used for over 60,000 years – and still used today – by Aboriginal people.

Lachie Jones is the eighth Port Adelaide player since 2013 to have helped design the club’s Indigenous Guernsey. “It’s a great honour to have had the opportunity to design this jersey,” said Jones. “I’ve been collecting the club’s Indigenous jerseys for the last five or six years, so I’m really excited to add this one, with this design, to my collection.”.

Black and white, with a few touches of light blue, characterise the Indigenous Guernsey, on which the Macron Hero stands out in white in the centre of the chest. On the inside edge of the collar, a label bears the phrase ‘ONE COUNTRY ONE CULTURE’, whilst the year the club was founded – 1870 – is printed in white on the outside of the back of the collar. A jersey with a unique and striking design, highly personalised and paying homage to the club’s roots, culture and people. A garment that confirms Macron’s focus – not only on the quality of fabrics and technological research – but also on stylistic innovation and meticulous design, details that make the Italian brand’s creations for its clubs unique and exclusive.