Getting guernseys reverses fortunes of one of the most remote footy clubs

To "get a guernsey" for a decorated sporting club is one of the proudest achievements a budding athlete can aspire to.

But what happens if the club in question doesn't actually have any guernseys?

That dilemma is one that the Fregon Bulldogs have, over the past few seasons, been all too familiar with — but solutions have recently been forthcoming, with the club turning to another with the same name to secure back-up options while an entirely new kit was in production.

The Bulldogs are among the country's most remote Aussie Rules football teams, and play their matches on the unforgiving surfaces of the outback and of South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

"Fregon is a very proud football club with a proud history and a proud community," said Dom Barry, a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara man who was involved with Fregon Bulldogs but also played games with Melbourne and Port Adelaide in the AFL.

Based at the northern end of the APY Lands, just below the Northern Territory border, the Bulldogs have struggled in recent seasons.

The main challenge has been less a question of form than of uniform.

"When I coached last year there were issues with having even enough guernseys for even a few players to wear," said Bryce Ingham, a TAFE SA vocational lecturer based in Fregon who is also heavily involved with the Bulldogs.

"The problem was pretty evident right away.

"We'd have games where we'd have half the team wearing standard everyday clothes out there to play in."

Over time the club's guernseys had slowly gone missing — largely because there was no central location for them to be stored.

The situation "wasn't ideal", nor was it confined to the guernseys.

"Even on the weekend we had some [of the team] go out there and play and when they came to the bench they'd swap the footy boots over with a player on the bench, so that player could run out and have boots on the ground," Ingham said.

The equipment shortages, he added, were having a demoralising effect.

"It really does make a difference to your team when you've got everyone in the same guernseys, same colours running around together," he said.

By coincidence, Ingham had himself been a Bulldog — but with the Rosewater Bulldogs in suburban Adelaide, 1,300 kilometres away.

When he discovered the problem with the Fregon guernseys, he got in touch with his old club, which was happy to oblige.

"We had a couple of sets of guernseys that we were going to retire so we were more than happy to send them over and help them out, along with drink bottles and that sort of thing," Rosewater president Matt Morris told 891 ABC Adelaide last week.

"We know how hard it is battling week in, week out trying to get guys on the park and having all the right equipment to go along with it.

"We're more than happy to help out if we can."

The clubs already had a connection through several players who had lined for both teams.

"Over the years we played for Rosewater a long time so for them to be giving us jerseys makes us very happy," said Fregon footballer and Pitjantjatjara man Bradley Roberts, who was speaking through a translator.

"It's a ngapartji-ngapartji (reciprocal) relationship."

'Unite us on, and off, the field'

At the same time as Rosewater was topping up the Fregon wardrobe, back-up plans were also afoot — Ingham has set about securing a fresh set of Fregon guernseys, with new designs.

"We've got some amazing artists through the APY Lands, some world famous artists actually," he said.

"One way I wanted to try and encourage some people into the TAFE centre to do some artwork [was to] design the guernseys up, and we had a few people come in and do some designs which I took to the community and put out the front of the shop and had people vote on which design they liked best."

The winning pattern was courtesy of artist Carol Stevens.

"It's got some footsteps on there for walking through the sand because we have the red dirt out here, it's got some paw prints on it as well to represent the Bulldogs, and it's also got some of the traditional dot painting represented on there as well,"

Ingham said.

He then turned to his sister's partner Steve Stork, whose business paid for the new guernseys, which will make their debut later this month.

"To have jerseys that are delivered for us just brings the community together and makes the community very proud," Fregon footballer Bradley Roberts said.

"The one jersey will unite us on the field but also unite off the field."

After finishing in last spot last year, the Bulldogs are now on the brink of a finals berth, and Ingham — who is intent on creating a central storage location for the new uniforms — largely attributes the change in fortunes to the change in guernseys.

"It's encouraged our past players to come back and rally around the club again, and we're back to being a really strong formidable side and pushing towards the finals for the first time in three seasons," he said.

"If you look good you play good — and I think that's definitely been a bit of the case here."