GFL up for the fight in bid for division one return from 2028

Goldfields Football League chairman Bill Hansen poured cold water on speculation around the team’s future at the annual Nutrien Ag Solutions Country Championships in Perth, adamant that the commitment of local players would continue to drive strong representation.

With Hansen at the helm as representative coach for a second campaign, the team went into last week’s carnival with high hopes in the top division but lost their four games and were relegated to division two.

Hansen, however, backed the side to rebound strongly.

“There’s always a massive cost involved,” Hansen said.

“But you tell our captains, Jorden Hooks and Ryan Macdonald, that we shouldn’t be going to Perth for this (carnival) and they are the first ones to insist that we need to be playing in it.

“It has that special level of appeal about it and, in the end, it’s much better for our competition that our players are exposed to this (higher) level of football.”

Since 2004, the GFL has responded to top-division relegation by claiming the division two crown on five occasions (2004; 2007-08; 2018; 2023).

“We talked about it at the weekend — that we’ve been up-and-down between the first and second division for a while now,” Hansen said.

“But we know that our competition is too good for division two because we’ve proved that by winning it quite often over the years.

“Then we get back in (to division one) is where it ebbs and flows a bit for us.

“We play in warm, dry conditions (in the GFL) and our grounds are a lot harder and faster, and smaller, so there are some factors that can be a challenge for our guys — the grounds here (in Perth) are heavier and slipperier.

“That’s not an excuse, but just some of the facts and the general nature of it.

“We had a laugh about it — that if we played these teams in 30C weather, no-one would touch us because that’s what we’re used to — really dry, speedy tracks.

“We might be lucky to play one or two fixtures a season in really wet conditions, but we lacked firepower up front and with our skill execution, more than anything.”

After a disastrous 2011 campaign in Perth when the team was relegated to B-section, the GFL spent years on the representative football scrap heap.

Former GFL vice-chairman Brendan Simpson, however, was instrumental in the region’s return — stepping in to co-ordinate a special 2016 Allstars’ appearance, with the bulk of players hailing from the GFL.

He then became a key member in the GFL’s full return in 2017, when they were the division two runners-up.

Callum Johnson was last weekend the lone GFL player named to a special Allstars team after the carnival, and Zak Barrett won the Fyson Medal as the local side’s best player.

Barrett polled 35 votes to lead Alec Johnson (34), Koopah Todd (27), Ethan Bentley (17) and Hooks (16), with Callum Johnson and Alijaah Evans tied on 13 votes.

And GFL teenager Tom Coughlan, who lined up for a composite Regional Districts side in the colts division at the championships, earned Allstars selection with teammate Thomas Tate, from Gibson.

Coughlan also got senior experience at the carnival when he lined up for the GFL’s division one game last Saturday against Peel.