This Sunday marks a significant occasion for the Essendon’s AFLW program, with the side taking part in their first ever Dreamtime clash.

Assistant coach Kirby Bentley, A proud Noongar woman, is leading the charge in the preparation for the clash vs Richmond.

Whilst her coaching expertise is invaluable, it’s Bentley’s special talent as an artist that will be prominently on display this weekend.

She is currently nearing the end of a lengthy process of painting a pair of every player’s boots for them to wear out on-field. Each pair boasts its own individual Indigenous design.

Speaking on the Bonnie T and Maddy P podcast, Kirby explained her passion for painting boots.

“It’s a lengthy process, my goal is to paint the whole team’s boots with the symbols of the people.” Bentley said.

“Each boot has 16 arches, these represent their teammates, which when the boots are paired together makes 32.”

 “They’re all on this journey together, paving the way and weekend they’ll be playing for each other.”

For Bentley, painting shoes/boots wasn’t always a past time, in fact it was only recently that she started designing again.

“At a young age my dad showed be how to do the landscape art for Aboriginal story telling.” Bentley said.

“It wasn’t until recently as an adult that I started again. It started when I bought an iPad for the development role at the Western Bulldogs because I wanted to film the girls kicking in slow motion.”

“I then found an art app, so I just began drawing and then ended up creating the design for the Western Bulldogs.”

It will be a sight to behold when the team run out in their special boots accompanied with the incredible Indigenous guernsey designed by Momo Willcox and Jackie Sinclair.

The Bombers take on the Tigers at 2:10pm at ETU Stadium on Sunday.