SWFL transfers: South Bunbury premiership star Richie Bourne returns to Kalgoorlie, will not play for Eaton

Richie Bourne’s mooted move to Eaton for the 2025 South West Football League season has fallen through, with the South Bunbury premiership star instead returning to the Goldfields Football League. A transfer for Bourne had been ticked off by the league last month, paving the way for him to join the Boomers, but Boulder City announced on Tuesday they had secured his signature for the 2025 season. Football’s transfer window is officially closed until February 1 but Eaton confirmed to the Times that Bourne, who was yet to sign a contract with the club, had informed them he was returning to Kalgoorlie for work reasons. Bourne kicked 38 goals in 19 appearances for the Tigers last season and finished fourth in the Hayward Medal count with 20 votes. In formally signing with the Tigers, Bourne joins his third GFL team — following previous stints with Mines Rovers and Railways. Bourne was crowned the GFL’s best player in 2015 as a member of Mines Rovers — a year after he played a handful of WAFL games for East Fremantle, where he was zoned to after the family moved to Perth. By 2017, Bourne was playing in the Esperance District Football Association and he made four WAFL appearances for Perth in 2018. It was followed by an initial stint with Railways in 2019 and after the 2020 GFL season was wiped out by COVID, he excelled in 17 games for the Panthers in 2021 when he was runner-up for the Mitchell Medal for the competition’s best and fairest player. After being lured back to the south coast for the 2022 season, Bourne in 2023 highlighted the Esperance District Football Association’s return to the annual Country Championships in Perth for the first time in 14 years by earning all-star selection.