West Coast Eagles stars recently went back to school to launch the 2019 instalment of Eagles Faction Footy.

The entire playing group spread themselves from Kewdale to Carramar, visiting schools from every WAFL districts to offer advice, coaching and fun activities to students as part of the award-winning program.

Eagles Faction Footy is a primary school, intra-school program that offers boys and girls of all ages the opportunity to learn the skills of footy in a safe, fun environment with friends from their own school faction.

Since it was first launched in 2005, the growth of this competition has been phenomenal, with schools adapting Eagles Faction Footy to suit their individual needs.

The flexibility of the program enables teachers to facilitate this program as part of the school curriculum, using the SEPEP model or similar, or by utilising break times before, during or after school.  

Last year, almost 80,000 students from 365 schools across Western Australia moved out of the classroom to participate in Eagles Faction Footy and by doing so, took an active step to the improvement of their overall wellbeing.

Through a long-standing collaboration with the West Australian Football Commission, WA students are also offered an opportunity to participate in inter-school competitions, namely the Eagles Cup and Eagles Schoolboys Cup.

Eagles Cup is Western Australia’s premier Primary inter-school competition for Year Four to Six students. The competition uses special modified rules to allow for maximum participation, enjoyment and skill development, where the emphasis is on playing for fun in a social school environment.

The Eagles Schoolboys Cup caters to Year 8 and 9 boys. More than 3,175 students representing a total of 127 WA schools competed in the competition last year.

First-year Eagle Brodie Riach said he was thrilled to coordinate an Eagles Faction Footy training session at his old stomping ground, West Greenwood Primary School.

“It was a lot of fun going back to my old primary school and running the Eagles Faction Footy program,” he said.

“I hope the kids got as big a kick out of it as I did. There were a lot of talented kids, but most importantly everyone was having a lot of fun learning the fundamental skills of the game.”

The West Coast Eagles is proud to support to the West Australian Football Commission in providing this program free to all schools in WA.

For more information, please visit https://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/the-club/community/grassroots-football