The following is an excerpt from Strength Through Loyalty, Saints at Moorabbin and Beyond, a book published last year and written by St Kilda historian Russell Holmesby. One chapter spoke in detail about St Kilda's rich history with indigenous footballers.


St Kilda has a rich tradition of fine Aboriginal players and led the way among League clubs in opening up opportunities for indigenous footballers.

St Kilda’s connection with Aboriginal footballers extends back six decades to Jim Wandin – known to one and all by the nickname “Juby” – the first Aboriginal player to wear the Saints’ colours.

Wandin was the ngurungaeta (head man) of the Wurundjeri people and had a wide and lasting influence on his people in Victoria. He played 17 games in 1952-53 and when he debuted for St Kilda became just the 12^th Aboriginal player to represent a VFL club in the competition’s 55 years of existence.

An even more striking statistic is that in the 22 intervening years until Robert Muir debuted in 1974, only 11 more indigenous players appeared in League footy.

While it is popular mythology that Essendon, through its coach Kevin Sheedy, opened the metaphorical doors to indigenous footballers and the strong representation in today’s game, St Kilda was leading the way well before Essendon embraced the notion.

From 1984 to 1991, the Saints introduced Phil Narkle, Greg McAdam, Nicky Winmar, Russell Jeffrey, Bob Jones and Gilbert McAdam to VFL football and also briefly had the services of Jim Krakouer.

In that same period Essendon fielded Michael Long, Derek Kickett and Gavin Wanganeen to add to the two earlier indigenous players, Norm Le Brun and Norm McDonald, to appear for the Bombers in the previous 92 seasons. Over that same 1984-1991 period, only West Coast’s nine indigenous players surpassed the Saints’ total of seven.

Winmar is acknowledged as the best indigenous footballer ever to play for the Saints, but many others were quality players. Gilbert McAdam’s peers, in particular, held him in the highest regard.

“McAdam was a very underrated player,” says former teammate Russell Morris. “He was a sensational player and was also a sensational guy. He wasn’t all that strong but gee he was clever – and could get the ball.”

It was significant that on the famous day in 1993 when Winmar bared his chest to racist Collingwood fans, another indigenous Saint – McAdam – played an integral part in the team’s success with five goals. McAdam continued to make a huge contribution to his people and to the game after his playing days were over. His avuncular presence on the Marngrook Football Show is the most visible example, but it has gone deeper through his roles for the AFL, state education department and other government sporting programs.

He came from a remarkable family, as brothers Greg and Adrian also played League football. “I was born and bred in Alice Springs,” he said. “My dad was a traditional Aboriginal person. We spent a lot of time in the bush and I obviously know where I came from. Greg, my older brother, was recruited by St Kilda from North Adelaide. We all started our footy careers at North Adelaide. Greg got the ball rolling for us.”

The refined skills of the McAdam boys were honed by having a football in their hands at every opportunity. “Footy was like a religion for us back at home,” said Gilbert. “We never walked around without a footy in our hands. It was just a part of us. We were always going to play footy, whether it was at the top level we didn’t know. We were happy to just play at local level in Alice Springs.” Adrian McAdam was the second fastest player in history to kick 50 goals when he enjoyed a meteoric start with North Melbourne.

Gilbert was a quiet type at first glance, but focused and with an inner toughness. He came to League football from a strong grounding in the SANFL where he won a Magarey Medal. “I’d played 100 games in Adelaide so I’d got over the homesickness and all that stuff,” he said. “I didn’t come to the AFL until I was 23 or 24. I know blokes previous to me like (Stephen) Kernahan and (Craig) Bradley and (Peter) Motley had all played 100 games before they came to Victoria. I was one of the last that had actually done that before they started getting the under-18 kids. It’s definitely different now because they recruit them so young and they have to worry about homesickness. I reckon the clubs are smarter now than when we were playing. There’s more Aboriginal players in the League. They have a fair system to handle them and that’s because we created all that.”

By the time of the 1993 “Winmar” game, McAdam was established as one of the Saints’ most talented players. He played a huge game against Collingwood, kicking five goals while despatching highly credentialed opponents Shane Watson, Gavin Brown, Mark Fraser and Graham Wright in the process.

“People forget that was the first time we’d won there for a long time,” he said. “Rob Harvey did his hamstring in the second or third quarter so we played one short. Plugger didn’t play either, so for us to do what we did, (even) I didn’t appreciate it at the time. Now when you are older and look back, plus the incident with Nick, it’s a bit of a talking point.”

He recalls that the abuse at Victoria Park was worse than usual: “When the reserves play you go out to check the ground and see the conditions, take a ball out and see how it bounces. When we were doing that, you came out of the visitors’ race past their cheer squad. Straight away they were in your face. I actually grabbed Nick and said ‘Come on, Cuz, we’ve got to run amok today, we are going to win today and aren’t going to put up with this. Let’s turn it into a positive and destroy them.’ We ended up doing it. We both played well and we won the game. That was the first and only time I ever played at that oval in my life. A lot of people say it is a graveyard but all the negative stuff they were throwing at me, it just made me really stronger as a person. Nothing was going to stop me that day and nothing was going to stop Nicky either. We were that determined to win.”

He can’t actually remember whether he was spat on at game’s end. “I was just smiling that much I never took it all in. I think we ran to the little bit of St Kilda crowd that we had there. That’s all I remember at the end of the game. I didn’t even see Nicky pull up his guernsey. I just saw it in the news and in the paper the next day.”

The significance of Winmar’s action wasn’t instantly apparent. “It wasn’t until the Monday when we went to training that the media was everywhere,” said McAdam. “I remember Huddo (Peter Hudson), our football manager, called me in and said everyone wants to talk to you. The way Peter is, he tried to dust it off and be diplomatic about it, we were all trying to be diplomatic about it. Nicky wasn’t being diplomatic. He was being straight out, he wasn’t going to hold back. I was a third-year player so I didn’t really want to say too much. If you’re a new player you don’t say much, but if you are a champion like Nicky Winmar you can come out and say a bit more.”

Strength Through Loyalty details St Kilda's history since the move to Moorabbin in 1965. To order a copy of this book, click here