Hosting pre-season AFL a possibility

Narrogin’s Mayor Don Ennis said a proposed redevelopment of the Clayton Road Oval could result in Narrogin hosting pre-season AFL matches.

Mr Ennis said the town had applied for Federal Government funding to upgrade the oval which would make the town a strong candidate to host pre-season AFL, as well as WA Football League games and State and interstate cricket events.

Mr Ennis said expressions of interest in the Regional Development Australia application had to be submitted by December 6. He hoped to know whether the town had been successful by next March.

He said he estimated the cost of upgrading the oval to be about $900,000.

“The whole range of facilities up there need to be upgraded,” he said. “It is very outdated, the toilets are antique to say the least, there is very limited disability access and we’d like to extend the dining and conference area and rework the bar.

“It would bring back to Narrogin many of the major events that we have possibly been bypassed on over the years.”

Mr Ennis said if the town was successful with the grant the project had to be finished before 2016.

However, he envisaged it would be completed sometime in 2015.

WA Football Commission spokesman Steve Toohey said hosting pre-season AFL and WAFL games in Narrogin would be a lot more likely if facilities were brought up to a high standard.

He said next year a pre-season AFL game would be played in Northam, which had recently done an upgrade on their local facilities and oval.

“An upgrade of Narrogin’s oval and facilities would definitely count towards securing AFL games,” he said.

“However, the ground would need to meet AFL specifications.”

Mr Toohey said WAFL games were played in country areas under the Country Sports Enrichment Scheme, which was based on clubs playing games in their nominated country areas and which were partly funded by the State Government.