West Australian Football

The Smarter than Smoking Football Cup for Year 8 and 9 students across WA was launched last week.

In front of 100 guests in the Polly Farmer Room at Subiaco Oval, including special guest Bill Ongley, the Sports Program Manager with Healthway, West Coast premiership player  Adam Selwood spoke of the fond memories he and his twin brother Troy (Brisbane Lions) have of playing school football and the important role school coaches played in their development.

Co-ordinated by Smarter than Smoking Football Development Officers in conjunction with the West Australian Football Commission, the Smarter than Smoking Cup runs throughout the entire State during Terms 2 and 3 and is split across the nine WAFL districts and eight country regions.

Metropolitan schools are grouped according to WAFL club residential boundaries. Matches are played to determine each WAFL club’s metropolitan champion school. In the country, schools are grouped geographically to minimise travel until regional winners are decided (Midwest, Midlands, Wheatbelt, Goldfields, Kimberley, Pilbara, Great Southern, South West), who then compete against their respective WAFL metropolitan champion school to determine an overall WAFL club representative in the finals.

The Smarter than Smoking message is not new on the WA football scene and this is the third year that it has been the naming rights sponsor of WA’s premier junior high school football competition.

The sponsorship enables Healthway to achieve two aims - introducing more young players to the exciting sport of Australian Football and increasing awareness of the Smarter than Smoking message.

“Our core objective remains to provide an opportunity for adolescents to participate in a high quality and well organised competition throughout Western Australia,” said Darren Davis of the West Australian Football Commission.

“I would like to acknowledge the support of WAFL clubs and our Smarter than Smoking Football Development Officers, who greatly assist with the management of the competition. I would also like to thank those teachers at the “coal face” whose hard work and passion for football and student participation makes the competition the success that it is.”