More than a year after being put forward to design the Melbourne Football Club's Anzac Day guernsey, flight lieutenant Aimee McCartney strode onto the MCG in front of a 70,000 strong crowd on Friday night to deliver the match ball for the annual fixture.
For the personnel capability officer with 32 Squadron at RAAF Base East Sale, the occasion was a special kind of trepidation.
Designing the Demons' 2025 strip saw flight lieutenant McCartney step out of her comfort zone as a contemporary Indigenous artist and muralist, her design inspired by her work in Air Force.
"I've always been very creative and have loved art but this was a different type of assignment and I was really influenced by my work and my surroundings in developing the artwork for the guernsey," she said.
A proud Taungurung, Wotjobaluk, Wemba Wemba and Boon Wurrung woman, Flight Lieutenant McCartney is the 28th serving member in her family and the first in Air Force.
The Air Force says "an enduring and close relationship" has been maintained between it and the Melbourne Football Club for more than 100 years, represented through squadron leader Keith William 'Bluey' Truscott, a World War 2 ace fighter pilot after whom the Melbourne Football Club's best and fairest trophy is named.
After participating in Darwin's Exercise Pitch Black last year, flight lieutenant McCartney said watching F-35A Lightning II land and take off on the 35-degree day inspired her design.
"I was inspired by the strength and resilience of these aircraft. And not only that, but also observing the effect [that] seeing and hearing the aircraft was having on everyone, it was really special – I just knew I had to incorporate the F-35 into the design," she said.
"I've always been very creative and have loved art but this was a different type of assignment and I was really influenced by my work and my surroundings in developing the artwork for the guernsey."
The artwork, titled the Missing Man Formation, portrays a formation performed by F-35s.
"It is a symbolic aerial manoeuvre undertaken by aircraft as a tribute to fallen sailors, soldiers and aviators, honouring their memory and capturing the ultimate sacrifice of those who will not return home," Flight Lieutenant McCartney said.
"In this formation, typically flown by four or more aircraft, one aircraft leaves the formation and ascends sharply, symbolising a missing, lost or fallen comrade departing from the ranks.
"The remaining aircraft continue in a tight formation, representing the mateship, unity, strength and the enduring spirit of those who remain."
She said she wanted to create a guernsey design which was representative of the aircraft's capability.
"I wanted to paint a design that to everyone wearing the guernsey or seeing it on the players would represent the F-35s, and for them, to take away a sense of pride, understanding the ultimate sacrifice that has occurred not only in the past but in present day for those of us that are currently wearing our uniform," she said.
As an AFL supporter who has played AFL for Air Force, participating in an AFL match on the eve of Anzac Day was an incredibly moving experience for Flight Lieutenant McCartney.
"It is an incredible feeling seeing your artwork start on a canvas and come to life, printed on material with the players and supporters wearing it," she said.
"To be here literally in the midst of it all is a moment in my career I will never forget."