Jy Farra says a passion for Indigenous art has helped him develop an emerging AFL career with the Gold Coast.
The 191cm fleet-footed defender has been named to make his first appearance of 2022 on Sunday when the Suns host unbeaten Carlton at Metricon Stadium.
It continues a journey which was halted by a dislocated ankle in 2018 before being recruited by the Suns at the end of 2019.
Hailing from Halls Creek, a small town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Farrar says his passion for creating Indigenous art has been a key part of an 11-game AFL career that included 10 appearances for the Suns last season.
"It was sort of big in our first year," Farrar told AAP.
"One of the main things that I took away was having that work/life and hobby/life balance.
"As much time as we do train and spend time with the footy club, we also do have a lot of time away from the footy club as well.
"It's about filling in those gaps and keeping busy, so you're just not always thinking about footy, footy, footy.
"You've got something else to think about to take all the stress and things away that footy does give you.
"Pretty much every chance I get or if I've got a big layoff during the week, I'll draw something up on the iPad and we'll sort something out like that, but yeah, as much as I can."
Farrar's talent has seen him design a painting for the Suns which will be displayed at Metricon in coming weeks, allowing attendees to Gold Coast home games to add their fingerprints to the work before it is completed.
It will be a lasting legacy for Farrar to the club that gave him an AFL opportunity.
The more immediate concern for the 25-year-old is helping the Suns bounce back from last weekend's disappointing loss to GWS against a Blues team holding a 3-0 record under new coach Michael Voss.
Farrar is one of three new faces named by Stuart Dew after the loss to the Giants, with Izak Rankine returning from a quad injury that sidelined him for the past two games and Malcolm Rosas the other player brought in.
Rory Atkins, Alex Sexton, Caleb Graham and Jeremy Sharp have all been omitted.
"If you look at our past month, we've been really good and the foundation that we built over the pre-season is unreal," Farrar said.
"We're not going to let one game show up our game plan.
"We're going to forget about last week and just focus on this week and bring our weapons."
Former Sun Adam Saad will return for the Blues after coming out of COVID-19 protocols with Jordan Boyd making way while Corey Durdin (COVID-19) is unavailable.
Voss has also named Marc Pittonet despite the ruckman being subbed off last week with a back issue.
