Kevin Sheedy has vowed to hunt down AFL recruiters who take issue with drafting indigenous players and have them kicked out of the league for good.

The Greater Western Sydney coach reacted angrily to one recruiter’s admission to the AFL that his club would baulk at picking up an Aboriginal footballer unless he had at least one white parent.

Sheedy, who has championed indigenous issues within the league and was behind the annual Dreamtime at the `G match between his two former clubs Richmond and Essendon, said such recruiters needed to be booted from the game.

“One of the best decisions when we went from VFL to AFL over 25 years ago has been the flavour of indigenous players coming into our game,” he said in Canberra, where GWS are due to take on Richmond in their final practice match on Saturday.

“So if there’s one or two rogue recruiters that need to be sorted out, they’ll get sorted out and we’ll definitely smash them out of our game.

“I will personally, well, I won’t persecute them, but they won’t be happy with what’s going to happen with them.”

He said GWS, who have four Aboriginal players on their list, would be more than happy to pick up those shunned by other clubs.

“We will definitely be ringing to find out if you’re not happy with that person, well good luck to you and we’ll go get them.

“That’s our approach to it all and, personally, I think if we find out anybody who would be thinking that way, they need to be sat down and addressed or get out of the game – and get out of the game for good.”

Sheedy said Australian rules remained the most encouraging sport in Australia in terms of indigenous participation.

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has already rubbished the recruiter’s comments as stupid and has spoken to the club involved.

He said the AFL will wait to see what internal action the club takes before it gets involved.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said he didn’t want to believe recruiters had such ideas about indigenous players.

“I find that hard to believe,” said Hardwick, who spoke glowingly of their young indigenous rookie Gibson Turner who’s from the Northern Territory.

He said adapting to the rigours of the AFL wasn’t a problem strictly for indigenous players.

“There’s no doubt we’re still learning and each kid’s different.

“Regardless of race … it’s a lot harder these days to acclimatise to AFL – it’s a very hard game.

“We’re learning from an indigenous point of view but also from our other players.”