Michael O’Loughlin has lived an extraordinary life - a premiership player, Sydney Swans 300-gamer, the first Indigenous coach of the AIS-AFL Academy and a loving father of three.

But as he discovers on the SBS series Who Do You Think You Are? there’s much more to the extraordinary life of Magic than even he knew. In fact, there’s something about Micky O which everyone can connect to.

As he traces back his Indigenous ancestry in the Who Do You Think You Are? episode and re-steps his great, great, great, great grandparent’s journey he discovers that they were pioneers in their time - much like Micky O of today.

Being aired on Tuesday, May 1 at 7.30pm on SBS ONE, O’Loughlin returns to South Australia where he grew up to retrace the bloodlines of his family.

It is there where he sees a family tree of his mother’s maternal line, which stretches all the way back before white settlement to his great, great, great, great grandmother, Kudnarto.

An incredible person, she was the first South Australian Indigenous woman to marry a white settler named Thomas Adams - who would fight and fight hard for Aboriginal rights following his wife’s early death.

O’Loughlin also investigates his father’s side and a family legend that connects him to Australia’s fifty dollar bill.

He discovers a life-changing ancestor, his great grandfather Milerum, who was one of the last Aborigines from the Coorong and Lake Regions to move to a Christian mission. Milerum’s legacy was to preserve the memory of a disintegrating culture.

Due to his passion for football and the hours and years spent at the Swans striving to be his best, Micky O had little time to learn about his people.

“I haven’t been able to sit around and talk to my elders and my grandparents and aunties and great aunties and uncles. I’ve missed out on that a little bit,” O’Loughlin recalls in the show.

With his playing days over, Michael wants to know the truth about his indigenous ancestry, which he does in the series Who Do You Think You Are?

It is a compelling one-hour show that reveals so much about Michael O’Loughlin and his proud family history.

“I have gone from a middle aged man who knew bits and pieces [about my people and culture] to a man now who can stand up in front of hundreds and thousands of people and say ‘this is where I’m from and these are my people.’”

Be sure to tune in to SBS ONE on Tuesday, May 1 at 7.30pm to see Michael O’Loughlin in the episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and click on the video player above for a preview