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How Eagle raised his nest of young women

Peter and Kerry Wilson with their three daughters Bree, Morgan and Courtney-Jane grey and black stripes. Picture: Ian Munro/The West Australian


His sporting career played out in the most blokey of environments but former West Coast star Peter Wilson’s home life is a different story.

The dual premiership player and his wife Kerry have three daughters — Bree, 17, Morgan, 22, and Courtney-Jane, 25, who will bring another girl into the family when her first child is born in May.

Reflecting on raising their daughters, the couple said communication was the key.

“We’re very close, we all socialise together, we go away together and we talk regularly,” Mr Wilson said.

But Mr Wilson, who now manages a drilling and sawing company, said he feared the impact that social media was having on the younger generation.

“I’m lucky that my girls are old enough now, but if I had a 10-year-old daughter at the present time I’d be a lot stricter than I am with the girls now,” he said.

“Social media is a major concern for a parent, and having a grandchild on the way it’s a concern, I really just think it’s getting out of control.”

Mrs Wilson said teenagers today had more freedom compared with when she was growing up.

“I was living at home right up until I got married and had to be home by 12 o’clock,” she said.

She said underage drinking was a growing problem among teenage girls. “It worries me with the alcohol and the drink spiking and the violence that’s out there at the moment but I trust the girls,” Mrs Wilson said.

“And they know they’ve got their father to contend with, so I don’t think any of them were game enough to put a foot wrong.”

The sisters said they didn’t get caught up in social media and had a strong network of family and friends to support them growing up.