WAFL Combined PPOA Site

 The annual WA State Academy Induction Night and jumper presentations to all 16's and 18's players selected to represent WA in the National Carnival was held in the Polly Farmer Room, Patersons Stadium on Tuesday 24th May, 2011.

The Combined Past Players and Officials Association was represented on the night by Bob Bright, John Komorowski, Geoff Swan, Dick Manning, Peter McGuire and Rod Hazell. Also attending the function but representing the East Fremantle Past Players and Officials Association were Bob Barnes and Mick Jez.

Clint Wheeldon the MC for the evening opened proceedings and welcomed guests and parents of the players.

First to be welcomed on stage was Craig Starcevich, the High Performance Manager for the State Academy to address the audience. He was followed by Wayne Bradshaw, the CEO of the WAFL Football Commission.

Clint Wheeldon welcomed special guests Jack Darling from the West Coast Eagles and Anthony Morabito from the Fremantle Dockers to assist in the jumper presentations to the state team representatives. After the completion of the jumper presentations the coach of the State 18's team Brad Wira was introduced to the audience.

Scholarships were presented by the Media Guild and Australian Rail Group followed by a financial donation to the State 16's Team by the President of the WAFL Combined Past Players and Officials Association, Bob Bright,  The cheque was accepted by Craig Starcevich who presented Bob with a game day football.

Bob spoke to the guests on the involvement of the Combined Association in football in WA. He went on to say that the Combined Association has been involved in football in WA for almost fifty years and has provided financial assistance to junior football over that time. He spoke about the structure of the Combined Association and the affiliation of the nine WAFL Club Past Players and Officials Associations to the Combined Association.

Further to this Bob also told the audience that the Combined Association has come full circle and that not only is the Combined Association providing support to the junior State Teams, but it would also be providing for the first time awards to the Best player for Western Australia and Queensland in the league State Game to be held in Mandurah between West Australia and Queensland. He finished by congratulating all the players selected to represent WA.