The AFL has set a target for increasing First Nations numbers in the sport's top flight.
As reported by The Age's Jake Niall on Friday, the AFL is aiming to have 81 First Nations players (10 per cent of the AFL) on lists in four years' time.
The target comes as First Nations numbers in the league have dropped to a 20-year low (62 currently) in 2026.
Speaking on SEN's Crunch Time on Saturday, reporter Tom Morris ran through how the AFL is tackling the issue.
"The clubs have been talking about this for some time and certainly many in the Indigenous community have been as well," he said.
"The AFL has sharpened its focus on not just bringing more First Nations players into the league but also retaining them in the league. I think that's the main issue from an AFL perspective, that too many Indigenous players have come in and then drop out on average quicker than non-Indigenous footballers.
"The head of this is Taryn Lee, who is the GM of First Nations engagement at the AFL. She has implemented or implementing a new First Nations strategy. It is an entire new philosophy around what it looks like to connect with that community."
Morris said reasons for the drop in First Nations numbers in the AFL can be linked with the pandemic, changes in list sizes and a drop in the soft cap salary.
Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was vocal in his support of the initiative after recently finishing 13 years at the helm of an AFL club.
Hinkley said through his experience coaching at different levels of football he believes a lot still needs to be done to make First Nations players feel safe and comfortable in the AFL community.
"I can go right back to my journey of coaching starting in 1996 at a local club in western Victoria called Mortlake," he said. "There were seven Indigenous boys in that team and I have always had this great connection right through with the boys and I have also loved every moment of it.
"I have also seen a lot of their challenges and a lot of their issues that they have to deal with that are quite unique to First Nations players and that's the problem we have, we don't quite have the understanding that we need to have. The care that we absolutely need to have.
"(Reducing racism) is the one, I just don't know how the hell we can actually reduce the experiences of racism in our game. It (is) online, it is crazy. It is ridiculous the way they get treated and it's just really, really unfair.
"I coached Willie Rioli's dad, I actually coached his dad when I first went coaching in 1996, and the same challenges were there as they are in 2025.
"The same challenges were still there and we haven't done enough to fix."
