Somebody's completely forgotten Sir Douglas Nicholls, pastor to his people and former governor of South Australia, when they chose the indigenous team of the century. Doug was the bloke who was taunted most, but, through sheer guts and his faith, broke down the cruellest of footy barriers for his race.

Racial prejudice and ignorance was so rife then it actually drove him from Carlton after six weeks to Fitzroy, where from 1932 to 1937 his dazzling wing play with the likes of Haydn Bunton and Wilfred " Chicken " Smallhorn enabled him to win Big V selection. Doug was short in stature but a giant for the Aboriginal cause. He definately would have been one of the first picked in my team.

A couple of songsters, Ken Mansel and Peter Bell even took up his cause by including him in Fitzroy's CD salute to its legend The Ballad of Haydn Bunton. They sang: "When little Dougie Nicholls came down from the scrub, football was a white man's game, at Carlton he was snubbed. Just an Aborigine they would not let him in. No one saw his blinding pace just the colour of of his skin."