Following tonight’s game at Patersons Stadium, Eagles fans will be hoping to celebrate a win over the Tigers. But everyone in attendance across the AFL will be celebrating more than wins this weekend.

Round 18 is the AFL’s Multicultural Round, which celebrates the contribution multicultural communities have made to the game’s history and the many wonderful cultures who all share a common passion for footy.

Multicultural Ambassadors Nic Naitanui and Bachar Houli, who will do battle on the field tonight, put aside their on-field rivalry and took students from the Australian Islamic College through their paces with some basic footy drills.

Naitanui, who is of Fijian decent, said it’s a round for everyone to be involved.

“We’re celebrating diversity in the game,” he said.

“It’s to show how multicultural the game already is, but also to celebrate the diversity of the game and get a lot of kids at the grassroots level involved.

“To see it celebrated on the big stage I guess just adds to that spectacle and hopefully inspires a few more kids from diverse backgrounds to get involved in footy.”

Houli, a practising Muslim, said it was about inclusion and giving everyone the hope to succeed.

“These kids have played football before, but never had the ambition or aspirations to make it at the highest level,” he said.

“I think through my involvement at the highest level, the doors of opportunity have opened up.

“Hopefully we can see some more young Islamic kids take this game up, first of all, and second of all make that as their goal.”