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WA Football chair Ian Callahan flags WAFL recruiting zones shake-up, says Bunbury-based team unlikely

WA Football chair Ian Callahan has forecast “major change” to WAFL recruiting zones, with clubs expected to be presented with options for a shake-up as early as mid-season. The newly installed head of the sport’s governing body in this state said the effect of WA’s rapidly growing population on metropolitan zones would be one of the organisation’s major focus points. Callahan said nothing would be off the table, including a radical redrawing of WAFL club’s traditional country zones, but all stakeholders would be consulted before any change was adopted. “It is an emotive issue,” he said. “Contrary to what we have done in the past where we have just had incremental change, we have to look at major change because the growth in some of the corridors in Perth is extreme,” he said. Callahan replaced former Chief Justice Wayne Martin as chair on January 1 and revealed in The West Australian on Friday a new look for football’s governing body. As revealed exclusively in The West Australian on Friday, the West Australian Football Commission has changed its title to WA Football to remove the “corporate beast” stigma and more accurately reflect the charter of the sport’s governing body. Callahan, who is also deputy chair at WA land information authority Landgate, has recently retired after 11 years as Curtin University’s chief operating officer. A former amateur footballer, Callahan is a chartered accountant who has worked in New York and San Francisco, he has also filled CEO, COO and CFO roles across a variety of industries and has a people and culture, health and safety, audit, risk management, digital innovation and governance background. Perth Football Club is expected to be a beneficiary of the rezoning. “We need to design zones that allow for opportunity if you are a well run club,” Callahan told The West. “Perth’s zones are problematic because they are mainly lower socio-economic apart from the South Perth area, so we need to change those and distribute them better. “You don’t want to take away the tribalism… but the opportunities within each of the zones are different. “You see East Perth with its zone and West Perth, they are on major population growth corridors. “We have got to make that balance. “There are lots of propositions we will put up, but we need to get the data right and understand exactly what the factors are that influence opportunity. “You can look at what schools are in an area, but we have worked out that schools are not actually the data you look at, it’s actually about the demographic of population in your area. “Perth is a good example of a zone that needs to change.” Callahan said metropolitan zones will be a starting point, but country areas such as East Fremantle’s mid west stronghold that includes Geraldton and Claremont’s exclusivity on the Kimberley and Albany will be reviewed. “You also have populations that have been welded on to clubs for a long time and don’t want to change. You have got to liaise with all of those people,” Callahan said. “But one of the propositions that will be put forward is should every club have an opportunity in the country zones to have access to one of the five major population centres. “We see the Bunbury area shared, East Perth and Swan Districts for example, and should Geraldton, Albany and Busselton and others be shared? Who knows? “It is an open, clean sheet and we are going to have a look at all of those things.” WA Football ran workshops with the WAFL clubs last season. “We have been talking about it for a while. We are working on it slowly because we want to do it properly and we want to be able to bring people with us to make it work,” he said. Callahan said WA Football will work with PSA schools, who have agreed to share data on the catchment areas of students. BUNBURY WAFL TEAM Calls for a Bunbury-based AFL or WAFL team have grown on the back of a $13.6m redevelopment of its major sports centre, Hands Oval, and thew news North Melbourne will play one ‘home’ game per year over the next three seasons in the WA’s third most populous city. But Callahan said a Bunbury-based WAFL team would be highly unlikely unless a club relocated. “You would replicate the challenges that Peel has,” he said. “Whether an AFL team would go to Bunbury? That is a conversation. “I am not a fan of the critcal mass of Tasmania being able to support an AFL team without another major subsidy from the AFL which draws on the rich clubs of the competition.” WEST COAST WAFL TEAM West Coast’s WAFL team has been handed more recruiting concessions for this season. Ravaged by mass injuries to the Eagles’ AFL team and criticised for lacking the all-of club culture that other WAFL teams have built up over history, the Eagles have won only nine games in total over the past four seasons. Callahan doubted an AFL reserves competition would work, given the Eagles and Dockers were already dealing with an inequitable travel schedule, but wasn’t sure what a future West Coast team would look like in the WAFL. “It is not always something all WAFL clubs are comfortable with but we need them to be competitive,” Callahan said. “We need a competition that works. “An AFL reserves competition is just too expensive. You can’t argue about flying and then increase the amount of flying you have to do. “It will continue for the time being, but whether that model works? My view is you let it go for the next couple of years and then see it how it goes. Whether there is a different model you might put to the Eagles that might work better for them?” TALENT PATHWAY WA Football has appointed North Melbourne and Fremantle great Peter Bell as the head of its revamped talent and performance pathway model. A review steered by a WA Football working party, headed by vice chair Dixie Marshall, delivered 40 recommendations, including the establishment of regional hubs, further development of coaches across all levels, the use of technology to track and monitor players throughout their development and improved talent identification. “People gravitate to the high-performance part straight away, but it is about two parts, that and pathways together,” Callahan said. “One starts with playing and participation and then it goes off into high-performance talent and ongoing player and coach development to support community football. “We want people to be the best football players they can be because if you are good at something you are more likely to participate in it. “Opportunities centre on either geographic or socio-economic circumstances. And there was not an equal opportunity across our community to get access to player development or opportunities to participate. We needed to do something about that. “You see the draft numbers. There were 10 kids drafted this year, eight came from PSA schools. “At the national level 25 or 27 of the top 30 came from private schools. “There was a need for change.” The working party spoke with local stakeholders as well as east coast academies. “We didn’t pretend we knew everything about it. One example, a kid in Roleystone, talented player, needed to participate in a talent program at Fremantle Oval, but how the hell can a parent get from Roleystone to Fremantle Oval? Well, that kid dropped out.” Callahan said it was about taking the expertise to the talent. “We do some things really well. We have South West academies and different WAFL clubs have development programs, and I’ll use Claremont as an example in Albany. They do a fabulous job in servicing and developing players in Albany,” he said. “But for other clubs the tyranny of distance makes it really hard. “We have other clubs in the AFL who are in the regions and city areas doing what they do, but it is really quite fragmented. “So one of the first things we have to do is get cooperation to consolidate resources. “But then we are also looking for other funding to come in from the AFL and State Government. “And it should resonate with the State government because it is about getting equity into regions and it meets with Roger Cook’s announcements about regions. “You need to have access to player development and the pathway, irrespective of where you live.” Callahan said hubs would be both geographical and virtual. “They might be in strategic locations around the State but they will use technology to help as well,” Callahan said. “If I take the eastern suburbs as an example. I know from my time on the Perth board we get grants for talent development but you spend it on getting buses to collect the kids. “It is a really big exercise but it is one that we have to take on. “Peter comes with a whole series of connections and experience in a high-performance environment. “He has the challenge of putting that together.” Callahan said early estimates had costings at $3 million a year. INDIGENOUS NUMBERS The number of Indigenous players on AFL lists has fallen to just 63 ahead of the 2025 season, down from an all-time high of 86 in 2020. It’s the biggest decline since 2006, when only 58 Indigenous players were on AFL lists. Only one Indigenous player was selected in last year’s national draft – Cody Anderson at pick No.64 by Hawthorn. Two other Indigenous players were taken as Category B rookies. Callahan said those numbers were not reflected in WA registrations, where indigenous participation was healthy. “About 12 per cent of players registered in WA are indigenous,” he said. “That is remarkable really, given (indigenous representation of the Australian population) is two to three per cent. “We have a good outcome. But it’s still not great, it could be better. “But we have seen a drop in players going into WAFL and the AFL and we need to address that. “We do have State Government and AFL funding and our funding going into the Kimberley. “That is a key resource but it is very big challenge to get that to have an impact. “That talent program is a part of that. “Part of the goal is to identify the best movers, as well call them. People who can play football but may not have had the opportunity. “And you see the Olympic sports do this all the time, they go and identify athletes. “We want to get out into those communities to increase participation in those areas where the kids don’t know anything about football. “We have already seen the African influence in football. There is enormous potential for us in that space.” OVERALL NUMBERS WA Football had about 89,000 registered participants last year, with Auskick growing but women’s numbers plateauing. “Women’s football registrations have grown from 3500 to 16,000 over eight years,” Callahan said. “Growth has plateaued because you’re not seeing everyone come in at all the levels all at once,” he said. “But it is still growing. They are good outcomes.”

The West Australian exclusiveWA Football chair Ian Callahan flags WAFL recruiting zones shake-up, says Bunbury-based team unlikely

exclusive
WA Football chair Ian Callahan flags WAFL recruiting zones shake-up, says Bunbury-based team unlikely