ARTICLE: "Not Black and White", by John Townsend (Swan Districts oppose changes to WAFC), 13/6/2019.

It’s good to see that Swan Districts has the courage to stand up against the VFL demigods and their WA sycophants at the WAFC. Swans want grassroots people to have a say.

Not Black And White

JOHN TOWNSEND

ARTICLE: Swan Districts oppose WA Football Commission electoral changes. Swan Districts are the only WA football stakeholders to oppose constitutional changes to the WA Football Commission that would formalise the complex election system in place for most of this century.

The two AFL clubs and eight other WAFL clubs agreed to the constitutional changes required by all WA organisations before June 30 under the new Associations Incorporation Act.

A WAFC special general meeting was held at Subiaco Oval last night to formally ratify the changes that were endorsed by the clubs this month.

But Swans opposed the changes and want the WAFC to apply the recommendations of the 2017 structural review of football to overhaul the current governance structure.

Swans' chief executive Jeff Dennis declined to comment yesterday and president Peter Hodyl could not be contacted.

Under the WAFC constitution, the nine WAFL clubs have half the votes at commission elections while the two AFL clubs have the other half.

But that is not applied in practice with the WAFC using the model designed in the 2001 Crawford report that gives 20 per cent of the votes to each of West Coast and Fremantle, 30 per cent to the combined WAFL clubs, 20 per cent to the commission itself and the final 10 per cent to community football, such as amateur and country associations.

Swans argue that the current breakdown, with the AFL clubs and commission holding a majority of votes, ensures the WAFL clubs will be invariably outvoted in any matter that conflicts between the two levels of the game.

A WAFC spokesman said a full governance review would be undertaken and was expected to be finished next year.

ARTICLE: "Mount Pleasant Junior Football Club Under-17s, and my move to Melville", by Neil Whyte, 5/6/2019.

ARTICLE: So this is what happened in a nutshell (re Mt Pleasant Under 17’s in 1984). I am not sure about 1985, I lost the 1985 junior council grand final program...I am 99% sure there was no 16’s Mt Pleasant...definitely not a 17’s).

In late 1983 there was a gathering of us (me, Dean Cole, Phil Otley, Mick Andrews, Jason Ramsay etc), and I don’t know how the conversation started...but it eventually turned to the idea of forming Mount Pleasant Under-17’s. Ian Andrews (Mick’s brother) put his hand up for the job. He was a bit young, but anyway, he was quite cluey on footy. It was the worst decision of my junior football life unfortunately. I should have stayed at Melville. I was named captain of the new Mt Pleasant 17’s. I suppose I thought it was convenient – a hop, skip and jump from where I lived on Riseley Street compared to going to Melville...would help mum and dad as they wouldn’t have to drive me to training.

So we formed it, the club went about registration, etc etc. We went about recruiting players which wasn’t easy. We even managed to get a few outside players from the area who were pretty good (like Brad Schofield who was at EF Colts as well). At that particular time, for some reason, numbers were a bit thin in the EF junior council for 16’s and 17’s. In 1983, for the first time ever, the EF  junior council decided to make it 11’s, 12’s, 13’s, 14’s, 15’s, 16’s and 17’s. I suspect that the thinning was partly due to this reason; however, the number of teams had dropped from only two or three seasons ago, when 15’s and 17’s had probably around 16-20 teams combined.

Craig Campbell was the 15’s coach, but I wish he had been the 17’s coach...and he probably wishes he had been as well come to think of it. I feel the team would have survived if Craig had been coach. Ian’s resources were limited and he was too young.

We were only averaging 8 people to training...this was my first major concern. We just couldn’t get everyone there.

By the time the first game came around, we were against East Fremantle JFC, and I knew quite a few of the guys in that team (Gavin Miller, Ron Adams, Mat Mudie (capt.)), and I was not sure how it was going to unfold. Well, we had 16 turn up (at least there was more than at training, ha ha)...but it was typical – games are always more fun than training!  I must admit I felt a bit embarrassed and a bit lost emotionally at the time. We got flogged, I think 25 goals to 7. Then they were 25-minute quarters. I wasn’t really looking forward to the next match, and again we had 16, I think, maybe even 15. Rossmoyne fielded the same number as us to make it fair. We got flogged 30 goals to 5.

Mount Pleasant (suburb), looking north.

Then there was an Easter bye coming up, then we were going to play Melville, my old team, and Melville were the best team, strong. I pulled the plug and said "I won’t be coming back, sorry". When that match came around, I went down to Strickland and watched from the distance on my bike; a handful of Mt Pleasant guys turned up and the Melville Team...I saw Ted Richardson, the coach, and Ian Andrews. Ian told him that they didn’t have the numbers and they abandoned the match which I knew was going to happen. I felt quite disappointed.

As soon as the Attadale coach (the late great Charlie Pratt of Pratt Plumbing) heard, he pounded like a cat on a hot tin roof, ringing my home, and wanting me to come to Attadale, who seemed to also be struggling a bit. I knew of a few of the good players, and asked him is Olif Sjerp playing? Colin Walker?..he said yes. I said I would think about it.

Mount Pleasant Primary School, September 2018.

I made a decision then to make an embarrassing journey back to Melville to meet Ted Richardson...whom I don’t think was really impressed with me leaving the club...then now wanting to return. Somehow, he let me come back into the team...I tried to fit back in, but something never really made me feel 100% comfortable. Ironically Attadale folded as well...two teams folded in the first few weeks, which left only 4 in the competition.

Ironically, I picked up 3 umpire votes in a best-on-ground in one of the Mt Pleasant games, then got enough for Melville, for me to win the EF 17’s best and fairest...I couldn’t believe it. The voting included my votes from that match combined with Melville. When I rocked up to the voting count at the end of the season, there were the 6 votes on the board including the votes from the Mt Pleasant games. They count half the votes prior to the main count. I knew I had quite a few votes. Then I picked up only a few more in the second part of the count to win by 2 over Mark Amaranti, my teammate. Mark was probably the best junior footballer in the EF council to have never won a EF fairest and best, ha ha. He had been runner up at least a couple of times, third, etc.

Even though I preferred Craig, he was already committed to the Under-15s position. I just made mention that I wish it was Craig. I didn’t think it was “wrong” at the time, but I did think he was a bit too young at 19. I do think that this was part of the problem though as to why the team was struggling. I certainly did my part to round up some players like Kim Brotherson, Kim Dastlik (both ruckmen as we needed ruckmen of course), and others. I don’t think others were doing their part to assist in the recruitment area.

When the team dissolved, a few went to Rossmoyne 17s and a few went to Karoonda Under-16s. I was the only one who went to Melville 17s which has been regarded as one of the strongest junior 17s teams ever in the history of EF junior council. Stephen Edgar and Cameron Knapton bypassed Under-17s and were already playing EF Colts. Eggs (Stephen’s nickname) was eventually best-and-fairest at EF, and then went to Carlton. Four other players in the team went on to play league football for EF (Mark Amaranti, Scott Annandale) and SF (Ashley Clementi and Todd Grierson) and there was David Hewitt and me who played Colts EF as well. The other junior clubs also had players go on in their career to EF; from Rossmoyne, most notably Chris Waterman (West Coast Eagles premiership player in 1992 and 1994), Dean Cole, Cadell Buss, Brad Read, Michael Little, and Craig Roberts. From EF Junior FC, there was Gavin Miller, Graham Dart, Matt Mudie, and Ron Adams.

[Neil Whyte trained with the East Fremantle (WAFL) senior team in the 1991-92 pre-season before moving to play with Applecross in the Sunday Football League. He played some East Fremantle Colts games in 1984 and did pre-season training with the Colts team in 1984-85. He has an active interest in sports medicine and treatment, sports history, sports psychology, sports sociology, and local history.]