Club secures icon as key ticketholder

The Mullewa Football Club has pulled off a major coup by confirming Dennis Cometti as its No.1 ticketholder for the upcoming 2016 Great Northern Football League season.

The announcement is part of a major membership drive which is encouraging players and spectators to dig deep and support a club which had by far the lowest membership numbers last season.

Saints president Peter Sweeney orchestrated the acquisition of the Geraldton-born footballing icon as the club’s principal supporter and said it would not only be good for the club, but for the league as well.

“He’ll follow Geraldton footy and we’ll keep him up to date on how Mully’s going in particular,” he said.

“Hopefully he’ll give us, and the league, a bit of a plug every now and then on a Friday or a Sunday.”

Mr Sweeney said while the immediate future of Mullewa was secure, he was more concerned with ensuring the club was around for future generations and had the resources to continue being competitive.

“Because of the geographic situation, and changing economies and changing lifestyles of everyone, Mullewa’s no certainty to be a long-term stay in the GNFL and that’s sad,” he said.

“Mullewa has always been the X-factor of this footy league… (but) we have the shakiest future of any of the seven clubs and we’ve got to try and address that.

“It’s hard yards… (so) it’s imperative we have members and people who want to follow us.”

The membership drive will not just be targeting supporters, but players as well, who will need to become members to receive the weekly cash prizes awarded to the best players.

Mullewa will, arguably, be the only club in the GNFL not to offer guaranteed match payments to any of its players, but it does offer incentives whereby the best league player receives $50, the second-best $40, and the third-best $30.

A similar scheme exists in the reserves and colts sides, and Mr Sweeney said it was a good way of trying to get the players to feel a sense of ownership within the team.

“There are some good cash prizes and any bloke who’s a half-decent footballer will have paid for his membership within the first half of the year,” he said.

“It (normally) costs big money to pay membership fees to play for any club or sporting organisation, so $100 for a footy club is probably pretty reasonable.

“We just want the players to be proud and passionate Mullewa people.”

Supporters who sign up as paid members before noon on May 1 will also go into the draw to have the cost of their membership returned to them.

The draw will follow Mullewa’s first home game against Railways on the same day.