Daniel Rioli says he once would have laughed off the idea he could play AFL football on the same ground he played junior footy, and in front of his family and community in the Top End.

The Gold Coast's marquee recruit for the 2025 season will play back-to-back matches at TIO Stadium in Garramilla (Darwin) from this Saturday as the Suns return to Larrakia Country for a fourth consecutive year coinciding with Sir Doug Nicholls Round.

Rioli has already played one match at Marrara with his former club, when the Tigers and Bombers took their annual Dreamtime Game north in 2020.

With the Suns ties to the Territory, on both club level and through players, Rioli said it's a "pretty special" prospect to make regular visits back to play at his hometown in seasons ahead.

Rioli spent some his younger years there between the Tiwi Islands and Garramilla, playing in a couple of junior flags for St Mary's.

In the later years of high school he relocated on a scholarship to Ballarat while chasing an AFL career.

The Suns host the Western Bulldogs at TIO Stadium in round nine before opening Sir Doug Nicholls Round with a Thursday night blockbuster against Hawthorn at the ground the following week.

Gold Coast then travel to Marvel Stadium to play St Kilda in the second round of the AFL's annual celebration of Indigenous people and culture.

The club will wear separate jumpers across rounds 9-11, the first representing Larrakia Country while they're there.

"I got the chance to play in a lot of Dreamtime at the 'G (games) in Melbourne for the whole of my career, really. To be able to come to Gold Coast and actually look at the jumper for the first time is pretty sick…what tops it off is we get to run out on to TIO Stadium in front of my hometown, really,"

"I'm going to have a lot of family friends that are going to attend the game. I'm just looking forward to the build up, and can't wait to get back home and see a lot of familiar faces."

Suns men's Indigenous players Joel Jeffrey, Malcolm Rosas Jr, Sean Lemmens, Ben Long, Lloyd Johnson and Rioli have personal ties to what is now the Northern Territory.

Teammate Jy Farrar is a Kija-Bunuba man from the Kimberley.

"It's going to mean a lot to put on this jumper and represent my people, to represent the Gold Coast family, the players, everyone that's involved and has taken part of this jumper, this football club," Rioli said.

"It's obviously a big occasion, and I look forward to this on the calendar every year. So it's going to be pretty important for us Indigenous boys to go out there and play. It's all about having fun, and I can't wait to get back home."

"I'm looking forward to playing on the stadium where I got to play my junior footy, with Ben Long as well," Rioli added, "so to be able to run alongside him in the same jumper and at an AFL level is going to be pretty cool.

"I'm just so proud of both of us, to be honest. There's going to be a lot of smiling faces in the stands, and I'm just looking forward to getting back and playing with a great, great bunch of blokes that we have here…hopefully get a couple of wins up there."

Gold Coast's Larrakia guernsey has been designed by Larrakia artist Keelan Fejo, taking inspiration from the sunsets off Nightcliff jetty.

Fejo said it was an "honour" to be involved, and capture a special piece of the Larrakia landscape.

"The main focus for this design is the Sun. The way I have designed the Sun is a form of cross-hatching technique called Raark/Rarrkbun, which is from my Mayali culture taught to me by my father, which was previously taught to him by his father-in-law and my grandfather," Fejo said.

"The Sun in our culture represents the giver of life and way of light to the land,"

Boomerangs and dots and rays around the sun represent strength and guidance and heat, or pressure applied by Gold Coast players during matches.

The club's 2024 Indigenous guernsey, designed by Yugambeh and Bundjalung artists Christine Slabb and Kyle Slabb, will return for the St Kilda clash in Naarm.

The Suns are eyeing off their first ever finals appearance after five wins from their opening seven games to start 2025.

After a maiden loss to Richmond over the Easter weekend, Gold Coast kept pace with Brisbane until the later stages for a 17-point loss to the reigning premiers in Sunday night's QClash.