Purple haze cloaks city for stars’ visit

Makybe Rise Primary School in Baldivis and Anniversary Park in Rockingham were awash with purple last Thursday as stars from the Fremantle Dockers Football Club stopped by.

The players visited Rockingham as part of the AFL Community Camp, and young footy fans at Makybe Rise were thrilled to meet veteran David Mundy, Brennan Cox and draftee Bailey Banfield.

The Club later hosted a free super clinic at the Rockingham Rams Football Club, with dozens of youngsters snapping up the chance to get coaching from players including Nat Fyfe, Hayden Ballantyne, Cam McCarthy, Ed Langdon and Cam Sutcliffe.

Dockers assistant coach Anthony Rock, along with development coaches Adam Read and Roger Hayden, hosted a separate clinic for local coaches, while the Fremantle Dockers Foundation donated a signed guernsey and a box to a Fremantle game in 2018 at Optus Stadium to the Rams for fundraising.

Rams president Michael Holland said Fremantle’s visit was an important one for the club.

“The staff and players at Fremantle FC are a real credit to the organisation and this concept is such a positive one is for grass roots community football,” Holland said.

“The donations from the Freo Dockers of the signed jumper and stadium box will be raffled to raise funds for the club, which we can use to purchase new equipment, particularly for the juniors, which is essential for our club,” he said.

“This really does mean a great deal to us.”

Makybe Rise principal Steph McDonald said the students at her school were left star struck as the players walked through during recess time.

The players had lots of great things to tell our students, reinforcing a lot of our school values of including the importance of staying healthy and physically active,

“They also discussed how as players they use goal setting, which was really relevant for our students who set goals for multiple subject areas in order to help them achieve success.”