FALCONS CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL FESTIVAL WITH UNIQUE JUMPER

THE West Perth Football Club will play in a unique 'international' themed jumper designed by a local Year 5 student from Quinns Rocks Primary School as part of this weekend's International Football Festival when the Falcons take on Subiaco at Joondalup's HBF Arena on Saturday.

The Falcons Football District (Hillarys Marina north to Two Rocks Marina) has a rapidly growing population with the fastest growing migrant and multicultural demographic in Western Australia. 

Australian Rules Football is embracing these new populations and in celebration the Falcons District will host an International Football Festival on Saturday July 12 as the West Perth Football Club takes on Subiaco Football Club at HBF Arena. 

For football clubs to grow and for the West Perth Football Club to grow in membership and junior talent, NOW is the time to attract our new residents to the great game of Aussie Rules at the home of the West Perth Football Club. 

The definition of 'Multicultural' is a person either born overseas or who has at a least one parent born overseas. The population in our West Perth District Zone is unique and brings additional challenges in relation to our multicultural population. Of our population we face the following unique challenges: 

• 67% of people with one or more parents born overseas 
• 46% of people were born overseas (Australian average 20%) 
• The United Kingdom is the highest ranked country of birth outside Australian in every 
suburb located within the West Perth District (9 or our 28 suburb areas have a UK birth 
population greater than 28%) 
• 9% of population have migrated in the last 3 years

On Saturday July 12, West Perth takes on Subiaco in front of a predicted 6000 strong crowd expected to be made up of new Australians and footy diehards alike. 
 
What to expect: 

• Free Footy Tickets to local school kids (70,000 given away across a two week period) 

• The Falcons to play in a one-off International Round Jumper- recognizing our growing community (See attached) 

• Large Kids Zone with Bouncy Castles, Face Painting, Super Slide, West Coast Eagles inflatable football activities, Sports Activities and more 

• International Food Stalls & British Beer Tent 

• A Great Game of Footy 

• Butler Falcons (Sudanese Female Football side) to play the Joondalup Falcons Youth Girls side prior to the match.

For the first time in 2014 we are also excited to host The City of Joondalup’s Citizenship Ceremony as new Australians make a public commitment to Australia accepting the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship. This will be held in a pre-match ceremony. 
 
The Falcons Football District have been busy promoting the event and by the conclusion of term three will have visited 35 local primary school assemblies to promote this great community initiative. 

Our History: 

The West Perth Football Club has a strong history of migrant members and players with many the sons of Italian migrants. In the late 1940s early 50s when a lot of Italians and migrants from neighboring European countries came to Australi following World War II they basically turned much of the West Perth zone into one big market garden. They would all work the gardens till noon on Saturdays before heading to Leederville to watch the footy. 

West Perth named its Garlic Munchers Team of the Century in 2008, which paid tribute to its Mainland European tradition that stemmed from its time at Leederville Oval. The footy club named its Garlic Munchers Team of the Century to honour the great ethnic players who have represented the club. 

The Garlic Munchers Team is unique because it represents a period in the club's history when its supporter base was made up of mainly ethnic populations surrounding its old home of Leederville. The team that was chosen is the best Garlic Munchers side of all time. Former West Perth president Colin Rockman said “There will never ever be another Garlic Munchers side of all time because the movement of West Perth Football Club from the Leederville days to Joondalup has changed the dynamics of what now makes up our side.”

Our Future: 

Migrants are not new to football in WA, but with the rates of those coming to Australia increasing the likes of West Perth with drive from the Falcons Football Distrcit are putting programs in place to cater for them. Some of the playing and coaching legends from football’s rich past were sons of migrant parents. 

The move of the Falcons to the new frontier in 1994 was never going to be easy however nobody predicted at the time the culture change it would bring to the West Perth Football Club nor the extensive work or investment the West Perth District (the community arm) would need to commit to grow and develop local football. 

The desire to capture the heart and get the passion for football running through the veins of its saturated migrant population led Falcons Football District to employ a full-time emerging markets development Officer tasked with growing the game within our new populations. In 2014 we took our innovative “International Jumper” concept to local schools in a bid to get a design that had meaning to the local community. Nine schools participated with over 130 creative entries. 

While the heritage of its migrants may have changed from Italian to mostly British since shifting its home base from Leederville to Joondalup, the Falcons are still dedicated to delving into the psyche of each and every culture within its zone and making football a key element of that. 

West Perth District Manager Andrew Ridley said 67 per cent of the Falcons’ district population was defined as multicultural, but over 45 per cent of those people personally migrated here (eg: were not born in Australia). Many of those are English people brought up on soccer. 

“We use schools as a major driver to expose children to football, including migrant children,” Ridley said ahead of the Falcons’ International Round on July 12.

“Kids come across from the UK and they are entrenched in culture of football (soccer) so we want to introduce them to our version of football – Australia’s Game, give them a taste for it and then link them up to their local football club. 

“The results have been good over the past three years with school and community football participation rates up more than 20 percent.

"We have encouraging situations at clubs like the Brighton Seahawks and Quinns Bulls, which are both in English heartland, where now the parents are becoming actively involved as coaches and volunteers and that’s what we want to see. 

“We won’t know for another five to 10 years how many colts, reserves or league players our programs produce from the migrant population, but we know this is a long-term commitment.” 

Celebrating our community- playing in a “WORLD” Jumper! 

“AFL Uniting Australia” 

To recognise and mark our intent to promote football through our new communities the West Perth Football Club's league team will play in a special one-off Jumper in 2014 showcasing our International Community. 

After successes of previous years (2012 the British Flag Jumper and 2013 the World Football) the club has recognized the need to embrace the concept moving forward. Driven as a major promotional need by the West Perth Football District we are pleased that the West Perth Football Club Board has run with this exciting concept. The jumper is being provided to the Falcons through support of the WA Football Commission. 

With the International Round Jumper sponsored by the WA Football Commission, the Falcons District and West Perth Football Club were keen to see a unique “International Round” Jumper designed to recognise and celebrate the huge multicultural population that live and work in Perth’s northern corridor. We think we now have this, thanks to our local school students. The winner for the 2014 Design a Jumper Competition is Quinns Rocks Primary School Year 5 Student Talyn Robis (design attached). This has been used as the inspiration behind the 2014 Jumper Design to be worn by West Perth on match day. 

The Falcons Football District and West Perth Football Club have used Tayln’s design as inspiration for the 2014 Jumper to be worn as West Perth take on Subiaco on July 12th. The Falcons have used Tayln’s design as inspiration and coupled that with the top 8 countries of birth (outside Australia) from residents residing in the Cities of Joondalup and Wanneroo. 

1) United Kingdom – Birthplace of 18% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~54000 residents) 
2) New Zealand – Birthplace of 3.5% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~10000 residents) 
3) South Africa – Birthplace of 3.2% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~9500 residents) 
4) Vietnam – Birthplace of 1% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~3000 residents) 
5) Ireland – Birthplace of 1% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~3000 residents) 
6) India – Birthplace of 0.9% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~2700 residents) 
7) Zimbabwe – Birthplace of 0.8% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~2500 residents) 
8) Malaysia – Birthplace of 0.7% of Cities of Joondalup & Wanneroo Population (~2000 residents)