The West Coast Eagles and Swan Districts worked together to help showcase some of the best young talent from the Pilbara in a curtain raiser prior to the Gold Coast Suns match last week.
West Coast's regional team which includes officers based throughout the state assisted Swans in organising the contest featuring talent from the WAFL club's zone.
The West Pilbara team featured players from Karratha, Dampier, Wickham, and Roebourne areas while North Pilbara had talented youngsters from Port Hedland and South Hedland.
The players ranged from 14-to-16-years old and fought out a tenacious and entertaining hitout on the vast spaces of Optus Stadium.
The match highlighted the bond between the West Coast Eagles and the Pilbara region, giving youth footballers outside the metro area an opportunity to showcase their talent.
Since the club’s partnership with BHP commenced in 2005, the West Coast Eagles’ footprint in the Pilbara has continued to grow, with the club now having full-time staff employed in both Port Hedland and Newman.
Regional Manager James Grabski praised the work done by regional Community and Game Development staff coordinating with organisations, local communities and Swan Districts football club personnel to make the match happen.
"Our regional staff play a really important connector role with the communities in Port Hedland and Newman, leveraging our relationships with clubs, leagues and supporting organisations,” he said.
"The game went brilliantly. It was a good contest but more importantly a rare opportunity for young players to be exposed to a high level of gameplay.”
“Something that is often challenging about football in regional WA is opportunities to continue to pursue the next level of talent, so to be able to do that on the best stadium in the country added an extra layer of excitement. It was a great opportunity for the players to really test themselves against other aspiring young players from across the region.”
Four young Martu players also travelled from the Western Desert in East Pilbara to be a part of the game.
“It’s important to acknowledge Ngurra Kujungka (NK) who play a really important role delivering and supporting sport and recreation opportunities across the Western Desert communities. NK assisted with identifying the talented Martu players and played a pivotal role in supporting their travel to enable them to play in the curtain raiser. For some, this involved an eight-hour drive from their home community to reach Port Hedland, followed by a flight from Hedland to Perth.”
The exhibition match was attended by all regional staff across WA who made the trip down to Perth this week for a mid-year check in.
The two-day workshop enabled staff to share the work already completed throughout the year, the connections formed with organisations and volunteers in their regions, whilst also planning out future programs being run across the state.
“The delivery of all of our programs and our footprint across WA as a whole is underpinned by connection and meaningful relationships, so it’s equally important internally to connect and to share our successes and challenges, and to support and learn from each other,” Grabski said.
"We’ve had some great success already in terms of the outcomes we’ve achieved as part of our regional community and game development strategy across the state. We recognise and value the great work that’s being done by external organisations within the communities we operate and are committed to collaborating with a collective impact mindset that returns enhanced social value within these communities.”
“We appreciate the support of our youth engagement partner, BHP, as well as that of our members and community partners whose contributions to the football club allow us to run these meaningful programs, leveraging our brand position to do some impactful work across the entire state of Western Australia.”
