GSFL OPINION: After two seasons of senior struggles, Denmark-Walpole need to address recruiting players

It has been a torrid season for Denmark-Walpole but their future in the Great Southern Football League remains the big question. The club has struggled to field senior teams this year and finished the season forfeiting in the reserves. Heading into the final round of the 2023 season the Magpies league team are likely to finish with a 1-14 win-loss record. Their sole win came on the back of an influx of players from outside their club, who rightly so wanted to play in a memorial game that honoured a close mate. So after two years where the Magpies have struggled to stay competitive at senior level, where to now? The GSFL needs Denmark-Walpole Football Club to remain a strong six-team competition. The DWFC absolutely needs football in their town, first and foremost for kids who want to have a kick. Talk of the club folding, losing a senior team altogether or even merging with Mt Barker has been murmured. These are all drastic measures that hopefully never eventuate. The Magpies have a raft of exciting youngsters coming through their ranks and their colts again look set to challenge for a premiership. The reality is not all these young players will remain at the club in the long term but the Magpies should see this as a reason to keep their club alive. Recently Kalin Lane was drafted as a skinny kid who hailed from Walpole and got taken in an AFL mid-season draft by Brisbane. Parris Laurie, a women’s football pioneer in WA who played in the AFLW, grew up in Denmark with her family heavily involved at the club. Where do the next Kalin Lane or Parris Laurie’s go if the club shuts the doors permanently? There are some good people involved the club at the moment and perhaps they lack a few more willing to put their hand up and help out. But the club must rapidly improve their senior player issues or things will only get worse. The first part of that is the Magpies have to come to terms with the fact they simply need to pay a group of travelling players each year. Like a host of other clubs around regional WA, this has become the norm. Some use a club bus and players travel from the city out to country grounds to keep these clubs ticking. It may not be ideal, or what the club wants, but it is reality. Four of five decent senior players, running out each week in the Magpies league team would help significantly. It would provide Tyler Stone with some much-needed senior assistance, strengthen their numbers and give the young players coming through some more senior figures to learn from. It can’t be for one year and then have a couple without. It can’t be just when the club thinks they are going to have a good year. I feel for the club, they really are trying and when sports club are struggling it is a difficult place to attract new people. However, the Magpies must help themselves to move forward and signing up a group of travellers like Mt Barker have done this season must be the priority in this off-season.