I’m Hailey Brownlow Winslow – new to the Carlton Football Club this season – with the first edition of a behind-the scenes look at CFC. This episode is dedicated to this weekend’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, but first, I’ll tell you a little about myself.

I moved to Australia in August after deciding to take a break from my seven-year career as an American television news and sports reporter and anchor of a fun football segment in Florida called “Winslow’s Wild Things.” With a dream of exploring the land down under, I decided life is too short not to, and bought a plane ticket. It’s been an adventure to say the least. I spent the first couple months traveling down the east coast of Australia in a campervan and zipping over to New Zealand with a kangaroo onesie and my crazy cousin Casey. Two fearless blondes who grew up sailing and camping together, we knew how to master fun, run into trouble, laugh at ourselves, and most of all conquer outdoor adventure. We went canyon swinging, zorbing, zip-lining, luging, extreme white water rafting, scuba diving, surfing, waterfall sliding, and hiking through the rainforest and national parks. With our bank accounts cleaned out onto the counters of convincing, good-looking worldly “adventure salesmen,” we quickly found ourselves curbside with the slew of German and English backpackers, living off $5 Dominoes, a jar of peanut butter (I still haven’t warmed up to Vegemite) and warm Jameson (Casey’s fault).

We found creative (and sometimes illegal) ways to shower, mastered missing our train stop, driving on the American side of the road, and herding escape-artist sheep. We gained a sincere appreciation for the Australian great outdoors, chased some incredible sunsets, and embraced “freedom” in the truest sense of the word.  With $87 to my name, I convinced our American waitress in Byron Bay to let me crash on her couch for a few days (which turned into a week) and quickly secured a job as an ocean kayaking tour guide and “Beachy” bartender. Casey reluctantly had to fly back to Florida to return to her bartending gig and I spent the next six months embracing my inner hippie in “happy-vibed, no-worries-mate, barefooted, surf central” Byron Bay. Life was good.  

And it just keeps getting better. Two months ago, I left the eastern most tip of Australia to experience Melbourne, with the privilege of working for the Carlton Blues! So here I am, ready to rumble! And with Brownlow as my middle name, and the award name for the AFL's most prestigious player, I feel like I’m in the right industry! Now in charge of this blog and podcast, I’m appropriately calling it, “Brownlow’s Blues.”

So for the first episode, I’m focusing on Round 10, the Sir Doug Nicholls Round. This weekend’s round, deemed the biggest national sporting ceremony in the country, celebrates the relationship between the AFL and Australia’s Indigenous culture. This year, the AFL has officially renamed the Indigenous Round, the Sir Doug Nicholls Round as a mark of respect to his enduring legacy.

If you’re not familiar with his story, Sir Doug Nicholls is an Australian football icon and country leader, deeply committed to excellence and reconciliation – on and off the field. He was an elite footballer, boxer, Church of Christ Pastor, human rights strategist, the first Aboriginal person to be Knighted, and among many other titles, the first appointed to a vice-regal office, serving as Governor of South Australia from 1976 until his resignation five months later, due to poor health. He passed away in 1988, at age 81. But his legacy lives on and is now rightfully recognized.

I hope to give you an inside look at what goes on behind-the-scenes and the hard work of the people who make up this wonderful club. And I would love to hear from you! If you have an idea for an episode or would like to know more about what’s going on in a certain area of the Carlton Football Club, please feel free to send me an email at hailey.winslow@carltonfc.com.au.

Go Blues!