Swans defender Dane Rampe will proudly wear the No.50 in Friday's clash with Hawthorn to celebrate the AFL's Indigenous round, a weekend the vice captain hopes will ultimately lay the platform for stamping out racism in Australian society.
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This year marks 50 years since the historic 1967 referendum, where Indigenous Australians officially became acknowledged as part of the country's population.
Rampe's Indigenous teammate Lance Franklin will wear No.67 on Friday in honour of the referendum, as will several Aboriginal players across the competition.
Yet for all the progress over the past 50 years, Rampe said racism was still a problem in sport and society.
Adelaide forward Eddie Betts has been racially vilified twice in the past two seasons, while Adam Goodes was the subject of abuse on more than one occasion before his retirement in 2015.
"There's still a little bit of racism out there so we hope to combat that in any way we can," Rampe said.
"Personally I've never heard anything like that [on the field] but we'd be naive to think it's not happening.
"Eddie Betts has been involved in two controversies over the past two years and obviously if we're looking back ... there was Adam Goodes in 2013.
"I prefer to take the glass half-full approach, which is it's going to get us talking about it, it's going to get us on the front foot and hopefully doing something about it. Hopefully we can get that started.
"There are a lot of ways and I think first and foremost there is the language we use and then having rounds like Indigenous round really help get that front of mind and help everyone start talking about it. Education is the start and then we go from there."
Rampe joined a number of teammates on Thursday at the annual GO Foundation lunch, the match-day sponsor of Friday's night's annual Marn Grook game at the SCG.
The GO Foundation was started in 2009 by Goodes and fellow Indigenous ex-Swans star Michael O'Loughlin, and provides schooling scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Sydney has made one change for the Hawthorn match, with youngster Oliver Florent returning to the team to replace Harry Cunningham who is facing up to eight weeks on the sideline with a foot-ligament injury.
Coach John Longmire resisted the urge to throw Kieren Jack back into the team as he continues to nurse a hip niggle. He'll now have two more weeks to rest given the Swans have the bye next round.
A win over the Hawks would improve the Swans to 4-6 heading into the bye, and could leave them camped just a win outside the top eight despite their 0-6 start to the year.
No AFL side has ever qualified for the finals after such a poor opening to the season, but Rampe said the club was on track to finish in the top eight for the 19th time in the past 22 years.
"On the back of last year, the grand final appearance, we might have just got a little bit ahead of ourselves in terms of excitement and what we know we can achieve should we put it together," Rampe said.
"I'm glad it happened to be honest because we've been able to rectify those things and hopefully we can continue on our progress.
"I know it's an old cliche but we've just been playing for each other more so the last three weeks and playing for the jumper and I think that's really held us in good stead."
