Former AFL ruckman a special guest at special south-west football club

Paddy Ryder, who played in the ruck for Essendon, Port Adelaide and St Kilda, will attend undefeated Penshurst's round eight match against Glenthompson-Dunkeld on Saturday, June 15.

It is part of the Bombers' second Indigenous Round. The club will have nine Indigenous footballers play across the reserves and seniors matches. One Indigenous player is injured and will help on the day too.

The teams will wear special guernseys and there will be a welcome to country and smoking ceremony as they celebrate Indigenous culture.

Penshurst life member Trevor Mibus said Ryder would answer a Q&A at the post-match function.

"We have a connection with Paddy through Andrew Vella at Geelong. Andrew's one of (our club's) longest returning Indigenous guys, I think he's been with us for four or five years," he told The Standard.

"Paddy is living in Adelaide now and he's going to come over and be mingling in the crowd and then we'll do a little interview with him after the game along with our other Indigenous guys from Geelong."

Mibus said having a player of Ryder's experience around the club was an opportunity for Penshurst players to learn and build on an already promising start to 2024.

"On the field we're going fantastic. (Coach) Jayden Watson is doing a fantastic job with the coaching and the things he's brought into the club are a lot of (Hampden league) Koroit-type things (from his time there)," he said.

"We've had (former North Warrnambool Eagles coach) Adam Dowie up and he spoke to the boys and did a little presentation pre-round one and just simple things he brought up that night players have been able to implement and we went to a training camp in Anglesea and we had a personal trainer and motivational guy speak to the boys.

"All of these are little bonding things and they're a really tight-knit group and it's showing on the field. They play some really good football when they get going."