After a decade-long wait, the AFL Indigenous All Stars return to the field to face Fremantle will have a lasting impact, coach Xavier Clarke said before Saturday evening's game.

On Friday All Stars captain, and Fremantle legend, Michael Walters said he was proud to be lining up with players he'd "always admired and… always wanted to play with".

Clarke it was important to strike a balance between wowing the crowd Saturday and being consistent with ideal preparation for the All Stars players' seasons with their clubs.

"We want to put on a good show, but also want to make sure the players, you know, set themselves up to have a good season," he said.

"And you know, we've got to honour the clubs' requirements of commitments. And we're very fortunate that the clubs have been so fantastic in the lead up to this game, the GMs, the coaches, for the players to be available to play, and that's what makes the game.

"For us, we'll be mindful of that, and we'll make sure that we look after… all the players… and making sure that we put on a good, good game."

Walters noted the high standards of Indigenous players in the league and the importance of inspiring players from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds into the game.

"The quality of indigenous players is there throughout the competition, and not only at Freo, but right throughout the competition. I looked up to guys like Jeffrey Farmer, guys like that, who sort of paved the way for us to come here and play. The history is stronger for this. I hope that right throughout the AFL we get more indigenous players and also multicultural players."

Walters commented he was proud to have played for well over a decade, having begun at the Dockers in 2009, for a club with a strong history of Indigenous representation.

"It makes me real proud. Obviously, when I first got to the club, I was 17, Des Headland, Michael Johnson, Roger Hayden, these types were helping me along the way. And you can see, even with this camp as well, when you get this amount of Indigenous players together, you bounce off each other quite well and it becomes a family, and you can look after each other as well. I'm proud of the club for what they've done with the history of Indigenous players and, I'll be forever indebted in the club."

Walters said the long-awaited All Stars game carried great significance.

"I see the importance for this game," he said.

"We keep going on about is the history from the Freo footy club, but also to see a lot of these young, talented footy players… we can see what they've done for football. And also, we see ourselves as entertainers and role models. And every time an Indigenous player kicks a goal, you can see him dancing. You can see him celebrating and going hard. So, yeah, we're, we're role models… we're proud as well.

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir said the All Stars game has "been missing from the calendar for too long".

"It's great that's reinvigorated now, and hopefully we can show, both teams, that it's a worthwhile event that we can have every year, every second year, and we love being a part of it this year," he said.

"It's really important stepping stone for our preparation for round one, but it's also a really important legacy piece to inspire the next generation."

Clarke said there was a strong bond between the All Stars players despite coming from different clubs and different places across the country.

"It's just that connection that they have with each other. I sit back having dinner or breakfast, and I'm just laughing in the background, because they're just joking and pranking each other," he said.

"I think the game and the legacy piece of the game… it's going to be so important for the next generation... I think there's a photo going around of Bobby Hill from the last game that he played with Brad Hill, you know. So that's the legacy.

"We've got the Freo next generation academy playing a curtain raiser before us, and hopefully in another 10 years' time, we see some of those players playing at the highest level of AFL footy.

"The game, it's going to be a great spectacle, but what it does for after this is; the impact's going to be huge. It's going to be broader than what we think.

"I'd just really like to thank Freo for one, putting their hand up so they want to be a part of it, and with their long history of Indigenous players in the game.

"I think it's going to a great spectacle. But I think the footprint is going to have from here on is going to be quite, quite big. If you say to the players, you're playing on a first class stadium, and you're going to get more than 40,000 people there and hopefully try and sell it out. It's massively important."