A FEW familiar faces will hit the park for the Nollamara Amateur Football Club (AFC) as part of the 2018 season of the WA Amateur Football League (WAAFC).
With more than 650 AFL games between them, Des Headland (Brisbane, Fremantle), Dale Kickett (Fitzroy, West Coast, St Kilda, Essendon, Fremantle), David Wirrpanda (West Coast) , Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls (Richmond, West Coast), Garth Taylor (Fremantle), Ashley Blurton (West Coast, Richmond) and Kevin Caton (West Coast, Fitzroy, Brisbane) are trying to help the club replicate its 2015-2016 premiership form.
Player, head coach and former Fremantle Dockers and Brisbane Lions player Des Headland is at the helm of the footy club, a club he said his whole family had been involved in.
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READ NOW“I’ve been around Nollamara AFC since I was a kid because my father, uncles and cousins played for the club over many years,” he said.
“I have officially been back in 2016 as a player and now head coach for 2018.
“ It was always a plan for me to one-day play for Nollamara like my family members before me.
“I remember fondly helping out dad’s team by doing the boundary goal umpiring and water boy as a kid before I headed to the WAFL.”
Recruiting the likes of Wirrpanda, Oakley-Nicholls, Kickett, Caton, Blurton and Taylor to work with the club on and off the field, Headland hopes their experience and knowledge of the game will bring premiership success this season.
“Jarrad played juniors for Nollamara , Ashley is a past premiership player so it’s awesome to have homegrown talent give back to the local community clubs they are from,” he said.
“Myself and Dale have been back involved since 2016 and we are very lucky that we have close friends with Wirra, Kevin and Garth who have seen what the club does for our wider community and are happily excited to share their knowledge and help the club moving forward.
“After back-to-back premierships in 2015-2016 we had a good year and played finals footy in 2017, but ended up losing in the first round to the eventual premiers.
“This year there are a couple of different teams but and the majority we should play again.
“But after seeing how good the comp was last year I think 2018 is going to be an exciting tough season for every team and we can’t wait to test ourselves against some fantastic football clubs.”
Headland said the club was still taking on players for the 2018 season with training taking place every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6.15pm.
The WAAFC 2018 season kicks off in April.
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