Former Eagle from the South West Derek Hall throws weight behind plan to bring West Coast WAFL side to Bunbury

Bunbury could be the solution to the West Coast Eagles’ struggling WAFL side, according to one of the State’s leading football voices, who says the region’s talent has been left untapped. The calls have been backed by a former Eagle from the region as the club continues to endure a horror season. On some occasions throughout 2022 West Coast has been left with as just 21 fit players forcing them to call on WAFL top-up players as high-profile stars including Nic Naitanui, Elliot Yeo and Luke Shuey spend significant time on the sidelines. The Eagles have even had to scrap to even field a WAFL side this season — an issue which came to a head when they were forced to loan two East Fremantle players from the Sharks when they met last week. The Eagles, who are sitting in dead last on the WAFL ladder after taking home the wooden spoon last year, have had their own team in the competition since parting ways with East Perth at the end of 2018. The West Australian’s chief football writer Mark Duffield said in his podcast, Duff and Quarters, its future could lie with the Bunbury Bulldogs. “They just do what Fremantle did with Peel and they go to Bunbury and say ‘let’s have an aligned team, let’s bring Bunbury in as West Coast’s aligned team’,” Duffield said. “When I say Bunbury, I stress it is Bunbury. It’s not the South West Football League, it’s Bunbury. “So Harvey-Brunswick, they still go where they’re going now, Donnybrook, Busselton. “The name of the team is Bunbury, and it is West Coast’s aligned team.” The calls have been backed by South West footballing great Derek Hall, who was drafted to West Coast from Harvey and has been involved in the South West Football League for several years. Hall said the plan thought up by Duffield would be “great if done properly”, and with many gun players from the region like Bailey Rogers, Tobe Watson and Connor Blakely already dominating at the WAFL level, finding talent would not be an issue. “There is a lot of kids from the South West who go up Perth to play WAFL footy,” Hall said. “If they had the opportunity to stay at home that would be really good. “If this is a starting point, and people want to talk about it and consider it, I think down the track it would be a fantastic thing.” Duffield also praised the strength of the local talent pool, but said the extra exposure, which could also include a reserves team, would make it easier for AFL clubs to see and access South West talent. The region had one of its strongest ever draft hauls last season with a trio of players landing at clubs, including West Coast’s Brady Hough, who joins Eaton Boomers product Isiah Winder at the club. “It is a very strong competition down there, it is definitely the strongest country competition,” Duffield said. “They would produce a lot of local talent, I think it is an unmined or untapped area of talent. “I think there is the potential for a lot of talent to be produced by Bunbury and for a population centre Bunbury’s size where the football culture is as strong as it is, I think it is punching beneath its weight.” But Hall’s enthusiasm did come with some caveats, and he stated the plan should not be rushed into. “It sounds like a great idea on the surface, but it has only just been brought up,” Hall said. “There would need to be a lot of discussion had and research done to make sure it is done in the right manner. “Bunbury has the population, they are doing some renovations at Hands Oval at the moment. “That would be the next thing, the grounds are not up to speed in terms of WAFL football so there would need to be some work done there.” The two-time Tuckey Medallist for Peel’s best player said if the Eagles went to Bunbury, they would need to learn from the mistakes the Thunder made as a start-up club in the WAFL. “Looking back on the Peel Thunder example, they got beaten by 100 points almost every game, that didn’t serve anyone any purpose,” he said. “Teams that have come into the competition have really struggled in their early days. “(I was at Peel) from probably their fourth year, and we still hadn’t made any inroads and it was really hard work.” Bunbury Bulldogs president Tom Busher shared the same concerns with the proposal, and said the members of the Bunbury Bulldogs loved being a part of country football. “The idea of having a South West WAFL team has been thrown around for a long time, and I think it is a lot more complex than a lot of people would ever contend it is,” Busher said. “All the people that are involved in our club are involved because they love country footy and what is local. “To comprehend anything of that nature is completely in a different space . . . It is north and south pole differences between running a country club in a country competition, and anything anywhere near the WAFL.”