Freo jumper designed by Tambellup legend Jeff Farmer shows off mountains, rivers and culture of Great Southern

Small town pride was stitched into every thread of Fremantle’s 2025 Indigenous Round jumper, with AFL great Jeff Farmer channelling the natural splendour of the Great Southern that shaped him. Arguably Tambellup’s biggest export, the “Wizard” as he was affectionately known, designed the jumper in collaboration with his parents, Iris and Jeff Farmer Sr, and former teammate Roger Hayden. Farmer’s guernsey, which Walyalup/Fremantle players wore across two weeks of Sir Doug Nicholls Rounds from May 15 to 25, features the three rivers of the Great Southern — the Kalgan, the Gordon-Frankland and Palinup — in the original Dockers tri-colours as well as its four lakes. Fluttering between the waterways are two of Tambellup’s emblematic birds, the Djiti-Djitis (Willie Wagtails). “If you ever journey to Tambellup, whether you’re coming into the town or leaving, there’s a sign that says ‘Tambellup — The Town of Friendship’, but the emblem there is the Djiti-Djitis,” Farmer said. “They’re a bit of an eavesdropping sort of a bird so that’s the way I tie in my story, is dreaming as a little boy in Tambellup about playing in the big league one day. “They obviously overheard me speaking about my dream and then they guided me.” Farmer said he wanted the “simple” design to incorporate his hometown and connection to Noongar country as well as his football journey, which he credits his parents for encouraging. “His dream was to play AFL and nothing else,” Jeff Sr said. “You know, he slept with a footy and he’d be up at this oval here training himself, running around, kicking, then play with all his cousins and that match simulation stuff. “It’s great and that’s what he wanted.” The back of the guernsey lists every Indigenous player — male and female —that has ever played for Fremantle. Below that is a poignant silhouette of what Farmer dubs the “seven brothers” — Roger Hayden, Troy Cook, Steven Koops, Antoni Grover, Des Headland, Dion Woods and Farmer himself — standing on the Great Southern’s most recognisable mountain range. “That actually made history back in the day of having the most Indigenous players play on the one team in the one day,” he said. “(They are) standing on probably the biggest landmark you can identify in the Great Southern, the Stirling Ranges and that’s Bluff Knoll. “Hopefully everyone will continue to support like they have for every single year and buy this jumper and wear it with pride, and obviously when the round finishes they can put it up with all the other ones that they have because it’s part of history.”