{"id":604762,"date":"2026-04-13T20:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604762\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:01:13","slug":"as-a-proud-west-australian-gather-round-should-stay-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604762\/","title":{"rendered":"As a proud West Australian, Gather Round should stay in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erin Harwood<\/p>\n

April 14, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

Save this article for later<\/p>\n

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n

Got it<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part of me that would love nothing more than to see Gather Round brought West.<\/p>\n

A proud Western Australian, the idea of Optus Stadium full to the brim across a full weekend of footy, and the city buzz that comes with it, is undeniably appealing.<\/p>\n

But on my flight home from a weekend in Adelaide for Gather Round, I couldn\u2019t help but feel there\u2019s no way our state – or any other for that matter – could come close to replicating what I\u2019d just experienced.<\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick Cripps during Thursday night\u2019s Gather Round opener between Carlton and Adelaide.Getty Images<\/p>\n

What South Australia has built over the past four years feels less like a round of AFL and more like a moving carnival.<\/p>\n

It starts the moment you land. Cardboard cutouts of players line the airport walkways. At baggage claim, a DJ plays as people dressed in disco ball costumes welcome fans spilling off flights.<\/p>\n

Before leaving the terminal, you\u2019re in it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the start.<\/p>\n

Live sites hum from morning to night. Pubs are wall-to-wall, all televisions set to the footy, tables shared by a blend of rival supporters.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the walk that quite literally took my breath away. The steady stream of fans crossing the pedestrian bridge over the River Torrens, a sea of colours converging on the same destination. It\u2019s what I imagine would be the closest possible imitation of AFL Grand Final Day.<\/p>\n

At the heart of it is geography. Adelaide\u2019s centrality is a quiet advantage that becomes glaringly obvious when you\u2019re there. Fans from Victoria can pile into cars and make the trip. Visitors from other states face relatively short, affordable flights.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans arrive for the final match of this year\u2019s Gather Round.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gather Round works because it is accessible, which feeds directly into something harder to quantify, but impossible to ignore once you experience it – atmosphere.<\/p>\n

And the numbers back it up.<\/p>\n

A record 270,018 fans attended games over the weekend, despite torrential rain, cold conditions, a cost-of-living crunch and skyrocketing fuel prices. In an environment where every dollar is being stretched, people still showed up in force.<\/p>\n

That says everything.<\/p>\n

For four days, Adelaide feels like it belongs entirely to football. Every pub, every street corner, every conversation is tied to the AFL. Fans from all clubs mix in a way that rarely happens across a normal home-and-away round. You\u2019re not just attending a game, you\u2019re part of a rolling festival that follows you from venue to venue.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Luke<\/a><\/p>\n

Crucially, it all revolves around a city built for it.<\/p>\n

Adelaide Oval is a five-minute walk across the footbridge into the heart of the CBD. It\u2019s seamless. You leave the ground and shortly after you\u2019re among bars, restaurants and packed laneways, still surrounded by fans dissecting what they\u2019ve just watched.<\/p>\n

That flow is everything.<\/p>\n

Perth, for all its strengths, doesn\u2019t replicate it in the same way. Optus Stadium is a world-class venue, but its separation from the city in East Perth – removed from the main entertainment strip – changes the rhythm of an event like Gather Round. It becomes more segmented, less organic.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the infrastructure beyond the marquee footy ground.<\/p>\n

South Australia hasn\u2019t just relied on Adelaide Oval. The State Government has invested heavily in turning Gather Round into a multi-venue event – including out in the Barossa Valley and previously, in the hills.<\/p>\n

Western Australia, right now, isn\u2019t at that level.<\/p>\n

Leederville Oval, for example, simply isn\u2019t up to the standard required to host AFL fixtures in a showcase round like this. To even enter the conversation, WA would need to commit significant funding into upgrading community football facilities and building a network of venues capable of sharing the load.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a criticism, it\u2019s just the reality of where things sit.<\/p>\n

Because Gather Round isn\u2019t just about hosting games. It\u2019s about creating a nationwide experience, and that\u2019s where South Australia has set the benchmark.<\/p>\n

None of this is to say Roger Cook and the WA Government shouldn\u2019t be ambitious. In fact, it should be the opposite.<\/p>\n

We absolutely should be looking at ways to create our own version of a footy festival.<\/p>\n

Something that plays to our state\u2019s strengths and unique identity.<\/p>\n

The successes of State of Origin in WA – as well as last year\u2019s Indigenous All Stars show there\u2019s no shortage of appetite.<\/p>\n

\"AFLAFL players bought into the State of Origin game at Optus Stadium. AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean taking something that is already working somewhere else.<\/p>\n

South Australia has invested in this. It has built the infrastructure, committed the funding, and created an atmosphere that feels authentic, rather than forced or manufactured.<\/p>\n

After experiencing it firsthand, that\u2019s the part that sticks.<\/p>\n

You can replicate fixtures. You can upgrade venues. You can even throw money at events.<\/p>\n

But atmosphere – real, organic, city-wide atmosphere is much harder to manufacture.<\/p>\n

And right now, Gather Round has found its home.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erin Harwood April 14, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-604762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}