Fremantle Dockers WA Blind AFL team

A premiership has finally found its way to Fremantle, but maybe not one the Dockers faithful would have expected or necessarily even known about it.

WA’s inaugural AFL Blind competition wrapped up on Saturday, with Fremantle claiming local bragging rights over West Coast to triumph in the competition’s first grand final.

A collaborative product of Blind Sports WA, WA All Abilities Football Association, WA Football, AFL Inclusion, West Coast, Fremantle, Northern Star Resources and the Purple Hands Foundation, the competition has been played at Cockburn ARC for the past month indoors on AstroTurfed basketball court in similar-sized fields to AFL9s.

Blind Sports WA chairman and City of Cockburn disability access and inclusion officer Ben Rowe said while there were sports specifically tailored to people living with a vision impairment, it meant a lot to the group to be able to play one of the biggest sports in the country.

“I’m 45; there’s a guy older than I am and he hadn’t had a kick for 40 years. They’ve come down, had a kick and have a go and it’s been great to have them involved,” he said.

“Some have never played sport before, but this has been an opportunity for them to do so because all they’ve known is school sport which was fully able-bodied and they didn’t really participate.

“It’s really important and I must say depending on your sight level, some young ones who are born with really low vision early don’t really get the opportunity to run or be mobile in that way or get the confidence to do so, so this helps people move and be physical in a safe space.”

Rowe credited improvements in technology for the surge in sports aimed at the the blind and low vision community.

“It’s really opened up the doors for a lot of these things; we’ve got blind tennis and blind soccer is starting to take shape as well,” he said.

“You’ve got integrated footy and then you’ve got the wheelchair footy. These different shapes of the game are taking place and we’re just trying to find our little pocket where the participation is high.”