Late start for Boomers new footy home

Dardanup shire president Mick Bennett has conceded Glen Huon Reserve might not be ready for the start of the South West Football League season after construction was delayed.

The $6.5 million project was originally scheduled to be ready for the Eaton Boomers’ 2017 campaign, but the 35-week build only started on September 1.

Mr Bennett said he expected the facilities to be ready by May at the latest.

“Given if nothing goes wrong they may only have to play the first few games away from home,” he said.

“Every effort will be made to get it ready for the start of the season.”

Mr Bennett said the delay was a result of taking slightly longer than expected to get the plans put through the council process.

“Going from one building to three also caused complications,” he said.

“But it is better late than never.”

Eaton Boomers president Gary Bock said the club would not make any decisions until it got an official date of completion.

SWFL general manager John Vidos said the league might have to structure the fixtures differently to compensate.

“Maybe the Eaton Boomers would have to play the first three or four games of the season away and make it up later,” he said.

“There are ways of getting around it.”

The Bunbury and Districts Softball Association will not be hampered, according to president Warren Jones.

Mr Jones said the association would still play out of the reserve, fencing off the two diamonds.

The council would allow the association to run its administration out of the Eaton Recreation Centre.

“It just means instead of playing at night, we will play both our juniors and seniors on Saturday,” he said.

“The construction zones are fenced off, we are going to try and play there.”