AFL needs to help more: Dons leader

A South West Football League official has called on the AFL to support country clubs burdened with compliance issues amid revelations that an umpire, who accessed child exploitation materials, did not have a Working with Children’s Check.

Last week The West Australian revealed David Wayne Bell, 55, was looking at explicit images of children as young as five while officiating football matches in the South West Football League and junior league without a check.

The news lead to shocking admissions by the McGowan Government that seven people who had been charged with or found guilty of sex offences worked with children for up to six months before their checks were rejected.

Donnybrook Football Club president Peter Hearman said the “slip up” was no surprise given the burden of compliance issues placed on clubs and sporting volunteers.

“The reality is that the burden of running sport full stop ... is just overbearing,” Mr Hearman said.

“I know you need to do the right thing by the community but ... the expectations on volunteers are too high.

“We have burnout at a club level and volunteers drying up. Unless society and various sporting bodies actually look at this, there’s potential there will be a negative impact on community sport in the bush.

“In my view if we’re going to continue down the compliance road football itself, the AFL, needs to actually give smaller country clubs a hand.”

Mr Hearman said huge expectations were placed on the South West Football League to behave professionally and said they did as best they could but, “were not paid to do it.”

South West Junior Football League president Shane Hastie said they, “won’t be messing around” but said the compliance was hard to police.

“There are 116 sides spread around the South West ... we can’t be all around the South West checking these things, that’s where clubs need to be more vigilant.

“Can I guarantee it’s not going to happen again, probably not, but we will do our very best.”

Several clubs admitted it came down to placing too much trust in volunteers to do the right thing.

“Obviously those days have gone so we’ve got to put the checks and balances in place now,” Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault Football Club president Craig Carbone said.

“It’s a shame we have to do it, it’s just another job a volunteer will have to do.”