NORANDA Hawks Junior Football Club is aiming to reconnect with past players as part of its 40-year milestone celebrations in 2019.
The club was formed by inaugural president Alan East and vice-president Ken Perks on Sunday, March 4, 1979, at Morley Senior High School’s oval.
Noranda was on the border of East Perth, Swan Districts and West Perth zones, but was only welcome to join the East Perth district.
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READ NOWThe inaugural committee opted to select Hawthorn’s brown-and-gold strip, mainly because of its contrast to other East Perth-zoned clubs.
The club has 18 flags, with the most recent being the Year 7s winning the 2018 premiership.
Two-time best and fairest winner Michael Prior stands as Noranda’s most successful senior footballer after playing in four premiership sides before being recruited to East Perth and later Essendon.
Other WAFL recruits include Noranda’s first league player Steven Wasley who played for East and West Perth, Trent Cooper (Peel Thunder and Swan Districts) and Joe Proctor (West Perth and Perth). The club is based at Lightning Park in Noranda after moving from Robert Thompson Reserve in 2008.
Looking back at changes over the past four decades, Perks said when the club started at Morley it had no changing rooms and used portable goal posts.
President Mark Micallef has been involved at the club for 11 years and said they were planning 40th functions and events.
“We will hopefully get some of the old boys to reconnect with us,” he said.
Micallef said the goals for the next few years were to build the football community in the surrounding area and increase the number of girls’ teams.
“There is a big gap between year 10 or 11 and colts – they normally leave the sport all together because East Perth can’t accommodate them all,” he said.
“Our intention is to build that pathway to keep them in Aussie Rules football, keep them away from their PlayStations and just give them some light at the end of the tunnel.”