AFL lets down WA grassroots
Country football legend Terry House has accused the AFL of abandoning the game at grassroots level in WA.
House, who won seven South West Football League premierships as a player and coach, claimed the AFL's decision to cut all funding to the WA Country Football League had led to the death of the biennial national country carnival.
The WACFL president said the AFL's restructured funding model for country football also had the potential to adversely affect a proven breeding ground for elite players.
But House believed the issue was deeper than the ending of the national country carnival.
He expected the AFL's bid to wrest licences for West Coast and Fremantle away from the WA Football Commission would mean the end of the WACFL and rob country football bodies of any direct access to help in times of trouble.
"We provide such an essential, hands-on service to our country leagues and there wouldn't be a board out there doing all the legwork," House said.
"I don't know how it would work once we all get the flick and the leagues would consequently not have anyone to turn to directly in a crisis.
"I just feel the AFL are not remotely interested in grassroots footy, even though (AFL chief executive) Andrew Demetriou has talked about the enormous amount of money that gets put back there.
"I'd like to see where it actually goes. They're putting money into women's carnivals and inter- national carnivals and they're never going to get an AFL player out of any of those."
AFL media relations manager Patrick Keane confirmed the WACFL's funding had ceased "due to a number of key changes in our pathway program over the last two years for country and regional talent".
He admitted the AFL had seen greater value in increased funding for the North East Australian Football League - comprising teams from the Northern Territory, NSW, Queensland and the ACT - and for a side from WA's Kimberley in the national junior championships.
"Those leagues-championships have been deemed to be a far greater outcome for potential opportunities for players to expand their careers, coupled with the already strong leagues that exist at State level in South Australia, Victoria and WA," Keane said.
"We would like to be able to fund many different programs-carnivals.
"But that is not possible so we have made a decision on what we believe will have the greatest overall reward for the game."
