Bunbury primed for more major sporting events after successfully staging historic Matildas game and AFL clash

Two major events in the span of a month at Bunbury’s Hands Oval have been and gone, but the State’s biggest regional city is now primed to secure a sustained schedule of top-level sport. That is according to Bunbury mayor Jaysen Miguel, who is among several of the city’s stakeholders to have hailed last week’s historic Matildas clash a huge success, alongside June’s first AFL game for premiership points played in regional WA. Despite some wet weather on Saturday, 10,272 people turned out to see the women’s national soccer side suffer a shock 1-0 defeat to Panama at the newly-redeveloped Hands Oval. The Matildas game came only four weeks after a ground-record crowd of 12,715 fans piled into the same venue as North Melbourne played against West Coast in their first game of a three-year agreement. Mr Miguel said the benefits of the matches for both the city and wider region were only just beginning to be felt. “There has been a couple of approaches and we’ll look forward to many more as they come along,” he said. “That’s the beauty of having these events — obviously we get to have the tourism and the economic benefit of that, but it’s a showcase. “That’s some data we’ll be looking to see as well, how many times it’s been viewed through (streaming service) Paramount+. “Every major league and sporting organisation talks about being a sport for all of Australia and getting out to the regions. We now have that facility and we’ve proven we can host these kind of events, so we’re more than keen to continue.” New Bunbury Geographe Chamber of Commerce chief executive Sean McKeown said the opportunity to show off the best of what the South West had to offer around the country was invaluable. “For Bunbury, it just raises the profile. I think these days especially, for any city or any town that can raise its profile, it just adds to the attraction of the place,” he said. “I think Bunbury did a very good job not just with the Matildas game but the AFL, that’s been an ongoing success. “For people in the regions surrounding Bunbury, what a fantastic list of fixtures for them to be a part of.” Unlike the two AFL clubs, who spent the days leading into their game in the region and staged open training and meet-and-greet sessions, the Matildas made only a day trip to the South West. Mr Miguel said the two events had also provided some lessons in how to create maximum value for the community in the future. “We’ll work on making sure how we ensure we have a contract in place that we try and get the best out of these things for as long as possible,” he said. “It’s about building these networks — we’ve built some relationships with Football Australia now, we know there’s the Women’s Asian Cup next year, so we’ve already started that conversation around what other opportunities we can have to have the best community output, (not only) from a games point of view but that community engagement as well. “It was a certainly a different crowd, but that’s what we want, looking at these different events and how the entire community get to celebrate and utilise the facility.” As it did with the AFL game, the Chamber of Commerce ran a competition encouraging members to decorate their shopfronts in green and gold colours, which was won by ShoeBeDoo. Mr McKeown said the region’s business community was happy to play their part in adding to the town’s vibrancy for the day. “For kids who are playing soccer themselves, to be able to walk down the street and look into a window and see the Australian jerseys and the colours, that’s fantastic,” he said. After his third game in charge of the side, new Matildas coach Joe Montemurro said the turnout for the game was “absolutely brilliant”. “We’re very lucky we’ve got a great following, I apologise we didn’t give them the result they wanted today, but we’d love to come back and fix that,” he said. “I remember (coaching in) in the A-League playing on a couple of ovals, but the surface was good, the . . . welcome was fantastic. “I can see a lot more games happening here. It was a great little event.” With the vast majority of the crowd exposed to the elements, goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln said it was “amazing” to see thousands of fans brave the rain at the newly-redeveloped venue. “I’m from a regional town myself, so I know how much this will mean,” she said. “Despite the result, we’re definitely really happy that we got to get out into the community. “We’re really appreciative of everyone coming out, even if it hasn’t been the best weather. “I didn’t expect so many people to come out.” Jacynta Galabadaarchchi, who made her international debut in the game as a second-half substitute, said the strong turnout was a testament to the support the side enjoyed right around the country. “Every game, there’s fans there, the young girls are starstruck whenever they see the Matildas, which is an amazing feeling, because when I was growing up, football in Australia for women was not this big and I think we’ve come a long way,” she said. “It’s a lovely town, it was so nice to see how many people came out to watch us,” defender Natasha Prior added.