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Dorrington wants to serve game

Grant Dorrington. Pic: Michael O'Brien/WA News

One of WA football's most enduring figures, Grant Dorrington, wants to come out of retirement and return to the game he has served for almost five decades.

The former WA Football Commission director has nominated to join the authority's board for the next three years.

Sitting commissioners, including WAFC chief executive Gary Walton and chairman Frank Cooper, will meet today to discuss whether to return the retired figurehead to the position of prominence.

If the nomination is backed, Dorrington's return will mark a new chapter for one of the State's longest-serving and most respected football administrators.

The 66-year-old has been retired for the past 15 months, having stepped down from the WAFC in July last year.

"I've always had a lifelong view of helping the game," Dorrington said. "I started in the game as a kid in the juniors. I've been right through as a paid manager for a big proportion of that.

"Everyone's encouraged to do voluntary service and commissioners are volunteers. I've had such a wonderful journey out of footy and I'm still passionately interested in our State's footy system that I want to give back.

"I've got a bit of knowledge. I sat through the (former WAFC chairman) Peter Tannock era and I saw all the machinations of licences for first the Eagles and then the Dockers, the junior models and the WAFL.

"I went and talked to quite a few different people that I respect that have been in footy. You've just got to make sure that you're not an alcoholic going back to the cupboard. I don't think I am."

Dorrington said he was not worried about the state of WA football, but admitted there were major global challenges that he wanted to help with.

The WAFC has the power to add additional members to the board, meaning Dorrington's inclusion would not have to come at the expense of an incumbent.