New West Australian Football Commission chair Ian Callahan downplays prospects of Bunbury AFL or WAFL team

New West Australian Football Commission chair Ian Callahan has downplayed the prospect of an AFL or WAFL team being established in Bunbury. Calls for a Bunbury-based AFL or WAFL team have grown on the back of a $25.2m redevelopment of its major sports centre, Hands Oval, and come as North Melbourne get set to play one “home” game per year over the next three seasons in WA’s third most populous city. But Callahan, who assumed the role at the start of the new year after a distinguished professional career which ended with his recent retirement after 11 years as Curtin University’s chief operating officer, said a Bunbury-based WAFL team would be highly unlikely unless a club relocated. “You would replicate the challenges that Peel has,” he said. “Whether an AFL team would go to Bunbury? That is a conversation. “I am not a fan of the critical mass of Tasmania being able to support an AFL team without another major subsidy from the AFL which draws on the rich clubs of the competition.” On the prospect of a third AFL team in WA, Callahan said WA Football did not have an official view but establishing another side in the State would prove costly. “South Australia would love one (a third AFL team) and the AFL is still looking for east coast opportunities, whether it’s another team in Queensland, but I think WA makes a lot of sense to them,” Callahan said. “I would think in due course it is something the commission would have to consider and whether the State Government would have an interest because we would have to partner with the State Government to do that.” Callahan’s indication the commission could be open to a third WA team in time represents a change in view from his predecessor Wayne Martin, who had rubbished the idea as “madness”. “I am not ruling 20 out, but I think in Western Australia there just aren’t enough businesses and people to support a third licence,” Martin said in 2023. As part of an exclusive interview with The West Australian, Callahan also forecast “major change” to the WAFL’s recruiting zones, including in regional areas. The South West’s long-standing zoning arrangements have seen Bunbury-based footballers linked to Swan Districts, while East Perth take in much of the Capes region and Lower South West, and Peel Thunder receive access to players in the shires of Harvey, Collie, Dardanup, Donnybrook-Balingup and Capel. Callahan said nothing would be off the table, but all stakeholders would be consulted before any change was adopted. “It is an emotive issue,” he said. “You also have populations that have been welded on to clubs for a long time and don’t want to change. You have got to liaise with all of those people. “But one of the propositions that will be put forward is should every club have an opportunity in the country zones to have access to one of the five major population centres. “It is an open, clean sheet and we are going to have a look at all of those things.” Callahan also unveiled a new name he believes will remove the Football Commission’s “corporate beast” stigma and more accurately reflect the charter of the sport’s governing body. The WAFC will now operate under the title of WA Football, with Callahan revealing the rebrand was a result of feedback from the football community. “They were telling us the commission was this beast that had a logo that made it look like a regulator and a corporate that doesn’t reflect what the participants were about or what we were about,” he said.