By JARROD POTTER
PLAYING football alongside Hawthorn’s Shaun Burgoyne and Fremantle’s Stephen Hill would never have crossed Jay Kennedy-Harris’ mind when he was drafted to Melbourne in 2013.
But those club based allegiances were put aside just for one match on Friday night as the best of the AFL’s indigenous champions joined up to represent their heritage as the Indigenous All-Stars.
Kennedy-Harris, 20, originally from Endeavour Hills, was part of the select squad picked to represent the Indigenous All-Stars against West Coast this week.
He traded in his red-and-blue Melbourne jumper for the night as he donned the heritage jumper in the 26-man final team.
Striding proudly onto Leederville Oval, in front of 10,000 fans, the All-Stars were gallant even with a few high calibre names – Lance Franklin, Cyril Rioli, Patrick Ryder and Adam Goodes among others – missing from the side.
West Coast was behind by 10 at the main break, but was able to smash through the Indigenous All Stars’ defence to claim the seven-point nail-biting victory as Kennedy-Harris’ brigade lost 5.11 (41) to 7.7 (49).
Burgoyne – a three-time premiership player with Port Adelaide and Hawthorn – added another accolade to his trophy cabinet as the Hawthorn midfielder was awarded the Polly Farmer Medal as the best player on the ground.
Former Dandenong Stingray Tom Lamb impressed in his first outing for West Coast, slotting a late goal to push the Eagles ahead in the fourth term.
