SWFL 2022: South Bunbury Football Club withdraws iconic women’s team from competition on back of racism row

A country women’s football side has been forced to pull out of its league after it lost its coach and scores of players on the back of a racism scandal where one of the club’s male players called an Aboriginal man a “yowie”. The South West Football League on Monday confirmed that South Bunbury Football Club had withdrawn its women’s team from the competition. The side initially lost revered women’s coach Maxwell Jetta, who resigned after the side’s Round 9 clash against Donnybrook due to personal reasons — after the Tigers were fined $200 when an unknown player from its league side called rival Carey Park forward Hayden Yarran a “yowie”. In the weeks that followed, more than 10 players from the women’s team either transferred to another club or left the league entirely, including most recently South Bunbury captain and stand-in coach Bethany Bond. After South Bunbury announced last week that the women’s team would have to forfeit their weekend clash against the Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault Lions, SWFL general manager Jason Crowe confirmed on Monday afternoon that the Tigers had officially withdrawn its women’s team nomination. In additional to game times involving South Bunbury being amended for the remainder of the season, the SWFL women’s football committee will meet in coming days to conduct a review into the women’s player points system. The undisputed powerhouse of women’s football in the South West, the Tigers entered this season aiming for an unprecedented premiership four-peat. But despite on-field success, the South Bunbury players stood firmly behind Jetta, who elected to leave his post after the fallout of the tribunal decision. “I thought this decision I have made would bring awareness, not only for myself, not only for Hayden but for the rest of the community,” he said earlier this month. “We should already know what is right, what is wrong and what is fair in today’s society. “With comments like that, we have a long way to go. “I thought we didn’t but looking at what is happening now, we haven’t moved anywhere and that is a real shame and it is embarrassing.” Prior to their first game following Jetta’s departure (against Bunbury at Payne Park), several South Bunbury players showed their support for Indigenous issues by running onto the ground wearing Indigenous face paint, while also taking a knee in the centre square. Bond, the premiership skipper and the leading goal kicker in SWFL women’s competition history, took on the role as captain-coach in a bid to hold the team together. But she made the tough decision to quit last week because of mental health reasons. “It was really, really hard for a whole week,” Bond said. “I was pretty miserable trying to make a decision and then it just got to the point where things were just getting worse in the media and I wasn’t happy. “I felt pretty miserable at our last game and I knew I didn’t want to feel like that for the rest of the year.”