Is it any wonder that people walk away from football in Australia, when key people do not support the game or the efforts of these key people?
The WA Football Hall of Fame is highly respected around Australia; So much so that the FFA version is modelled on the Western Australia version. It is something that football can be proud of here in Western Australia, and proud of those players, coaches and administrators who have been inducted.
The Committee of the Hall of Fame, who all work in a voluntary capacity, has organised the World Cup Wonders exhibition at the Town Hall in Perth in the lead up to the event kicking off in South Africa. On the Saturday evening they had planned to honour those West Australians who had played in World Cup qualifiers for both the male and female versions of the game.
The Mayor of Perth was there along with other high profile politicians, people the game needs to lobby to take the game forward, yet two of the games most celebrated players pulled out at the last minute citing flu as the reason they could not attend. Stan Lazarides and Jason Petkovic were the two players in question.
If they were not well, that is unfortunate, but to withdraw at the eleventh hour was very harsh on the organisers who had put in so much time and effort. If they were still playing, would they have been fit enough to play? One would hope that the same attitude would apply to a function such as this which was to help promote the game.
