West Coast Eagles stars Matthew Priddis, Adam Selwood and Luke Shuey attended the 2009 season launch of the Eagles Cup and Faction Footy programs at Warwick cinemas last night.

Eagles Cup is an interschool competition which involves 11,000 students from over 500 schools across various districts of Western Australia. The winning school in each district is given the chance to be presented with a trophy by a West Coast Eagles player.

This is the third year of Faction Footy where 120 schools compete against their fellow school mates. Each school runs their own Faction Footy competition and has seen over 10, 000 primary school students become involved in Australia’s top game.

These programs are integral to the development of grass roots football among the community and gives the development of West Australian football a brighter future.

All the West Coast Eagles football development programs are proudly sponsored by BHP Billiton and without their funding, these programs would not be able to continue.  

A short video message by Matthew Priddis was presented to thank the sponsors and teachers and noted the positive influence programs such as these have on kids.

“It’s a great competition and as a kid you really do remember it. I was lucky enough to play in the Eagles Cup in year six and seven,” said Priddis.

“Fraser Gehrig came out to my school to present a trophy and it meant a lot to me so it’s great to have Eagles players come out to schools to inspire these kids.”

Priddis is just as happy to return the favour.

The night was topped off with the advanced screening of the movie The Boat That Rocks to say thank you to all the teachers, sponsors such as BHP Billiton and co-sponsor of the Eagles Cup, The West Australian newspaper.