A 13-year-old Jamie Pi landed in Melbourne’s outer south-east in the early 1990s having never seen or heard of our game.

Twenty years on, the Chinese immigrant is immersed in the culture of Australian Rules football, firstly at community level and now at St Kilda as part of the AFL’s inaugural Coaching Diversity Program.

Pi, along with five other coaching interns at Brisbane, Greater Western Sydney, Essendon, Sydney and Carlton, commence the program this week, which lasts until the conclusion of the season.

Since he first encountered our game at high school and then at St Gerald’s Junior Football Club in the Dandenong Districts Junior Football League, multiculturalism in the game has evolved dramatically, with Pi one of the many beneficiaries.

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“The AFL has a heavy emphasis on multiculturalism and diversity inclusiveness in our sport,” Pi told saints.com.au on the day the league announced the Coaching Diversity Program.

“I’m part of the multicultural program where I get to spend some time with the St Kilda coaching team and learn the craft and basically hoping to attract more people from multicultural backgrounds to our brilliant game.”

A financial planner by trade, Pi will spend time each week inside the Saints’ headquarters in Seaford, sitting in across a variety of meetings and activities, ranging from high performance and GPS data to opposition analysis and match committee.

“I will enjoy my time here on a weekly basis. All the coaches have already welcomed me and all the players have been introducing themselves so it’s been great so far,” Pi said.

“I’m hoping to get a real insight into a high level club like St Kilda and high level coaching and to learn more about coaching, more about people management and hopefully bring that to community football.”

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