Albury will host an Indigenous game against North Albury

The Tigers are home to long-time rivals North Albury and Heta has been the driving force for its introduction.

"I'm definitely proud mate, it's something I've been passionate about for some time," Heta declared.

"We were looking to run this last year until COVID struck and I've just been so fortunate to be part of a club which is willing to do basically whatever to make it happen.

"The club was coming to me saying, 'what else can we do to make this work' and I'm very thankful to Albury."

The match coincides with NAIDOC Week, which started last Sunday and runs until Sunday, July 11.

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Heta is a proud Wiradjuri man, while his team-mate Jeff Garlett is from the Noongar Ballardong people from Western Australia.

Garlett played a number of Indigenous round games in his 185-game AFL career with Carlton and Melbourne.

"This means a lot, obviously with NAIDOC Week, it's huge for us," he suggested.

"It allows us to show our culture, what it's about and how much we have to work on as a group to become one unit.

"It's amazing getting the Albury Tigers behind this and with North Albury's support as well, it's good for the community to show who we are and what we are."

A ceremony will take place prior to the 2pm game with both clubs wearing Indigenous-inspired jumpers.

"The Albury Tigers jumper is a story significant to Albury, it's connection to country, which is the Bogong Moth story," artist John Murray explained.

"In short, the Bogong Moth is about bringing people together and celebration.

"North's jumper is more of a nod to the past, present and future players and probably the future direction of the club.

"There's the animal footprints, the kangaroo and emu and that's about moving forward and the goanna footprint, which is passing respect to the custodians of the land we are on."

The match itself will be a support act to the day.

Albury is unbeaten after 11 rounds, albeit surviving a scare from Wodonga last week, while North Albury is the only winless outfit, although its average winning margin has been slashed in recent weeks.

The Tigers will field one of their younger teams for some time with co-coaches Anthony Miles (hamstring) and Luke Daly (rested), joining other seasoned campaigners in Daniel Cross and Dean Polo (calf).

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