A deal is being negotiated between the WA government, the AFL and North Melbourne for the Kangaroos to play two “home games” each season in the West.
The deal is yet to be announced but it would mean the Kangaroos would host West Coast and Fremantle with one game at Perth’s Optus Stadium and the other to be played at Bunbury’s Hands Oval.
The Bunbury venue has recently undergone a multimillion-dollar revamp and the deal with North Melbourne will reportedly bring the club around $1.2 million in extra revenue.
Although it would be a huge gamble to basically forfeit home-ground advantage to the two WA clubs during the home-and-away season.
Many Kangaroos fans took to social media after news broke of the potential deal to voice their anger at having to travel interstate to watch their team and the fact that they will be at a disadvantage with the vast majority of the fans going to be supporting the Dockers and Eagles.
Hands Oval has an upgraded capacity of around 15,000 following its redevelopment and South West Football League president Barry Tate told the ABC that they had been in discussions with the AFL for the past six months around hosting matches.
“We had a meeting two and a half to three weeks ago and we were pleasantly surprised when Todd Viney from North Melbourne arrived,” he said.
“When North Melbourne turned up at the meeting it was the first inkling we knew that something special was going to happen.”