WRFL: Ritchie Hinton gives an insight into the future

New Western Region league boss Ritchie Hinton has spoken on the challenges facing on the league and why he is confident about the future. Check out our Q&A.

Ritchie Hinton is the WRFL's new CEO. Photo: Supplied.

New Western Region Football League chief executive Ritchie Hinton believes an exciting future awaits the competition.

Last month, he sat down with Leader to discuss stepping into the role and replacing Matthew Duck.

What attracted you to take on this role?

“I’ve had the benefit of working across national sport organisations, a couple of state organisations and in the private space as an athlete manager as part of TLA for 10 years so I’ve all kinds of aspects of sport.

“The benefit of that is you can work out what you’re really interested in, what drives you and what you’re passionate about.

“This is a real opportunity to work in two big sports – football and netball. And the benefit of big sports is, you’re not trying to sell the sport. Working in football, it’s nice to be in an environment is where I’m working with a great product and make it better.

“It’s can we do this better, not trying to sell the sport. Footy is a great sport, netball is a great sport. There’s a lot of public awareness around it.

“To have a product that is great already as a leader is a wonderful position to be in.

“Why the WRFL? I’ve only ever lived in Yarraville since I moved here from England in 2005. I’ve got kids who have gone through junior sport including WRFL and local cricket.

“I love this area, I fundamentally understand it. It’s important to me on a personal level. I care deeply about this part of Melbourne.

“Sport is one of the great social connectors, it gives people a sense of belonging and that’s why people spend so much time at their clubs.

It’s a new chapter in the WRFL’s history. Picture: Andy Brownbill

What are the challenges that lay ahead for the WRFL?

“The west has got socio-economic challenges and demographic challenges on our side of town that are a little more pronounced than other parts of town.

“And that makes it even more important that our clubs are healthy, welcoming so that we can help those communities that maybe don’t have the same level of support that you might get in other areas.

“I don’t see cost of living (as too much of a challenge). I think we’re a relative cheap sport to play when you compare it to others. It’s not an equipment heavy sport.

“The challenge is also the opportunity. We know we’ve got growing suburbs, recent migrants from places including southeast Asia and Africa, that’s great. But we will also need to be very aware footy is not necessarily an automatic choice for these people.

“It’s not just as easy as saying because there’s a lot of people they’re going to play football and netball, they’ve grown up around other sports.

“We have to work hard to connect with those communities in ways that make sense to them. Perhaps our traditional league structures don’t suit their worship days for example. Perhaps there’s some cultural specific issues we can work with them around.

“Maybe training twice a week and playing on the weekends isn’t what works for their lifestyle.

“The answer is not always to get people into clubs.”

The WRFL has a new man in charge. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Does the WRFL have an issue with on-field violence?

“I’m not sure our league is any worse than others.

“You never want to be hearing or reading about issues of violence in any sport, there’s no place for that.

“Talking about football specifically, it is a heavy contact sport, there is an element of aggression that is built into the game but that’s not an excuse for people to use uncontrolled aggression.

“I had one chat with one of our senior officials from the umpiring department and he made a really great point which resonated with me. He said that if umpires make a bad decision, everyone talks about it and in a game they make 200 decisions.

“It’s the same in this scenario. If there’s one incident during a season, with respect, that’s what ends up in your paper.

“There is an AFL process we follow when these things happen. We have a zero tolerance approach to violence and abuse to umpires.

“But when those incidents do happen, it’s important to deal with them appropriately and quickly but not jump to conclusions that the game’s got a problem.

“There are 2000 games in a season, 2000 games in a season, but we’re going to write about someone who threw a punch in that game.

“Context is everything.”

What are the plans for the future?

“Our current strategic plan finishes so we’ll be looking to put a new plan together for 2023 and beyond. That’s a top down and bottom up process.

“We’ve put together a strategic subcommittee which includes club representatives and there will be surveys and workshops, all those types of things you would expect in a strategy process in the early part of 2023 and we’ll be working close with AFL Victoria to better understand where their focus, resources and time are going to be spent.

“We don’t want to be doubling up on resources, we want to benefiting from each other, we don’t want to be pushing in different directions if we can avoid it.

“We need to be making sure that we’re listening to our clubs and that they’ve brought into what we’re trying to do.

“It’s clearly be going to be about growing participation, about sustainability.”

Participation is one of Hinton’s biggest focus areas. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Is there a possibility of more teams eventually joining the WRFL?

“If there was ever a question of an existing football or netball club, wanting to join our league from another we would approach that discussion in a really respectful and transparent way with all the stakeholders.”

What’s happening in netball?

“The netball aspect to what we do is a really interesting opportunity to us. On a personal level, I am a big fan of football and netball associations together. When done properly, that cohesion inside a club works a really well. I think they can play really important parts in binding communities and I think they can strengthen each other as well.

“They’re not competing with each other, they’re complimentary. And it can spread the volunteer burden as well. You can bring new volunteers as well.

“I’m really interested to see where the netball journey goes. We’ve got a senior competition at the moment, there are new facility being discussed.”