West Coast Eagles star Nic Naitanui has thrown his support behind changing the date of Australia Day declaring he would love WA to lead the way in moving the date — as it marked “a dark day for indigenous Australians”.

His declaration comes after an exclusive poll by The West Australian revealed young Aussies are divided on holding celebrations on January 26.

Naitanui revealed his personal opinion in an articulate post on Twitter, joining the chorus of calls to choose a more inclusive date for the national holiday so all can celebrate.

“If a simple change the date helps appease tension, unify Australians and collectively allow us to celebrate this amazing country I’m all for it,” he wrote in a statement.

“Although 1788 marks a dark period for indigenous Australian, acknowledgement and not shying away from historical events for educational/ progression purposes is important.

“I’d love the WA population to lead the way in this space and find an appropriate date.

“We celebrate other holidays on the calendar differently to the east coast so why not this one?

“To be honest its tiring seeing the protesting, these debates and the hate in people’s hearts this period every years.

“Time to stand up and be heard “#daretobedifferentWA.”

READ THE FULL RESULTS OF THE WEST AUSTRALIAN’S EXCLUSIVE POLL HERE

Earlier today, the star Eagles ruckman commented on the annual debate after years of escalating protests from First Nations people.

Naitanui then opened the conversation up to his 80,000 or so followers.

“Curious to know who thinks the date should change or remain the same... would love to know your reasoning too,” Naitanui said in response to a Tweet referencing the poll.

Karl Langdon, a former Eagles premiership player, was one of the high-profile WA respondents, arguing in favour of the national holiday to remain on January 26.

“We recognise our history on this day good and bad,we cannot change our past and what was done, we have and will continue to change our future,” he said.

“We are in a much better place today than in 1788 when they raised the British flag in NSW. Keep it on this day and teach it to our people.”

After more than 100 replies to his initial post, the West Coast big man launched a poll, asking the question: “Should the Australia Day date be changed?”

After nine hours and more than 500 votes, the poll echoes the sentiment of The West Australian’s exclusive report, that the debate divides West Australians within a percentile difference.

The poll was initially in favour of not moving the date, however in the last few hours the vote has swung in favour of changing the date - with 50.3 per cent of respondents voting yes, 49.7 per cent no.