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The potentially existential threat to WAFL's most successful club
Mark Duffield • February 11th, 2026 3:30 pm
This caught my eye on social media last night.
It is a statement from East Fremantle CEO Adrian Bromage on the state of play in the multi year saga involving the club, the East Fremantle council – the state government, WA football and East Fremantle’s rival WAFL football clubs over the redeveloped ground that many of you will know as Shark Park – now called The Good Grocer Park under a naming rights deal.
A meeting earlier this week between the club, WA football, the state government, the town of East Fremantle has not resolved an impasse between the club and WA Football over whether the Sharks should be made to erect a fence around its oval for home games to comply with the rules and regulations of the WAFL competition.
A meeting later this week of WA Football is now likely to rule on whether the Sharks will be granted another year’s exemption of being able to play home games without a fence – or even a permanent exemption to be able to play home games fence free. Or WA Football may decide to take a hard line stance and tell the Sharks that without fences they cannot play home games at East Fremantle – a decision which would pose an existential threat to the Sharks – one of the proudest clubs in WA football and a club which has won 30 premierships – more than any other club with the most recent being in 2023.
After the meeting this week East Fremantle CEO Adrian Bromage released a statement which said in part:
“These discussions were constructive and focused on identifying the best outcome for the club, the competition and the broader community recognizing the unique nature of Good Grover Park and its operating environment.
"As part of this process, the club has formally requested a permanent exemption to the fencing requirement. This position has been well canvassed with stakeholders and reflects the unique nature of our venue, precinct development and operating model. That request is now under consideration by WA Football and we await their direction on the next steps.
"At this point no decision has been made. The club is not progressing any alternative arrangements while this process is ongoing and will continue to engage constructively with WA Football and all stakeholders once a determination is received.
"Importantly the EFFC remains positive and confident about the season ahead and is looking forward to returning to competitive football at Good Grocer Park.”
What does all this mean? It means the East Fremantle Football Club is determined to press ahead with a no fences model with the support of the East Fremantle Town Council and local MLA Lisa O’Malley. It believes it can develop an economically viable business model without fences. The council, food and beverage supplier Belgravia and Lisa O’Malley all stress that the no fences model was a condition of East Fremantle’s $32 million redevelopment.
WA Football’s position is it was not consulted on those conditions and would have stressed that fences were a requirement of its competition if consulted – and that it should have been consulted as the body running the competition that is going to play there. WA Footy’s main concern appears to be the view of other club’s – who with the exception of West Perth are against the Sharks being able to play at Good Grocer Park without fences – and the potential legal ramifications of events without fences.
And East Fremantle’s legal advice on that issue appears to be they have clauses in their contract on the ground which legally indemnify them – and that major public events take place with far bigger crowds than those which attend WAFL games – without fences – all the time.
Just to underpin the significant position the Sharks hold on the latent development pathway for WA Football – Paddy Cripps- the WA captain, star onballers Luke Jackson and Chad Warner, and midfielder defender Trent Rivers – who are all expected to play for WA against the Vics – are all products of the East Fremantle zone – or as my old colleague and Sharks fanatic John McGrath used to say – just a few more that rolled off the assembly line.
There is a lot to play out here later this week. Watch this space.
