WORKING together as one, playing with a strong and fierce spirit - it is something the Bathurst Giants women have done since their inception but they will place extra emphasis on those ideals come this Saturday.
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It is because they will be wearing special jumpers for their Central West AFL Indigenous round clash at George Park 1 with Cowra.
The jumper is based on a collaborative painting entitled 'Together, we will work as one to empower women'. It was done by Dakota Nugent, Victoria Fing, Zailarnhi Sullivan plus Elsie and Grace Toubia from Goanna Good Years as well as Kellie Lane from Dotpoint Family Mentoring.
It was designed by Hailee Provest, one of the Bathurst Giants who can't wait to pull it on come Saturday afternoon.
"I have never felt so proud," Provest said.
"I poorly drew the design that I wanted and the girls and bubs made it everything that I imagined. The whole project has so much meaning to me and I am so grateful that Giants are hosting an Indigenous Round and giving back to the community."
The goanna represents both the totem of the local Wiradyuri people as well as those women and children from Goanna Good Years who worked on the painting.
Other elements in the design include the traditional Aboriginal women's symbol, three children's hand prints, three women's meeting places which represent the forwards, back line and midfield plus seven meeting places that represent each team the Giants club fields.
Those elements are connected by three rivers as the Wiradyuri people are known as the people of the three rivers - the Wambool (Macqaurie), Kalari (Lachlan) and Murrumbidjeri (Murrumbidgee).
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Giants skipper Katie Kennedy is excited about leading her players out onto George Park 1 in the special jumpers.
While she would love to celebrate a victory in them and continue the Giants' undefeated start to the 2019 season, Kennedy said the main aim is to keep enjoying the sport.
"We are really looking forward to it, both teams have had that strong Indigenous background since their inception and it will be good to get both teams together and have a good crack," she said.
"We've come from last year as the underdogs to this year being three from three already and beating the two top teams for so long in the competition. So it's a bit of a twist around from last year and we'll see how it continues.
"Everyone is so excited for this round, last year the boys got to wear the jerseys, but this year the girls are wearing them. We are excited to prove ourselves in them."
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For the Bathurst Giants men, who will wear their regular jumpers, the mission on Saturday will be to bounce back from a shock away loss to the Parkes Panthers last week.
Helping the cause is that the Giants will return to George Park 1 - a venue at which they have won seven of their last 10 appearances - after spending a month on the road.
The last time Cowra managed to beat the Giants in Bathurst was on June 4, 2016.
The women's game commences at 12.30am and the men's fixture at 2.30pm, with an acknowledgement of country in between at 2pm
The special jumpers, funded by CSU Community Parntership, will be auctioned from 6pm at Bathurst Panthers. The proceeds from the auction will be split between Bathurst Giants and Centacare Bathurst for the Goanna Good Years Antenatal Support Group and Play Group.
