Woodside and the Fremantle Dockers will extend their sponsorship deal for another two years.
The announcement was made on Wednesday after months of negotiations and in the face of a significant campaign from climate groups calling on the Dockers to dump Woodside as the club’s sponsor.
The Dockers will keep Woodside as a sponsor for two years.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Club president Dale Alcock said Woodside had provided the club great strength and stability for more than a decade.
“A clear example of this is the support Woodside provided through the pandemic when we faced great uncertainty. They were there when we needed them most,” he said.
He said Woodside had helped the club establish its first women’s program in 2017 and develop its reconciliation action plan, and lauded the gas giant’s efforts to curb climate change.
A petition with more than 8000 signatures was presented to Alcock and the club in July, urging them to scrap its deal with Woodside because of its continued expansion of fossil fuel projects in the face of global warming.
On Tuesday, Senator and former Wallabies test captain David Pocock weighed in on the debate and urged the club’s top brass to look elsewhere for a major sponsor because of Woodside’s pursuit of carbon-intensive projects.
The two-year deal is a shorter extension than previous agreements, but Alcock said the club’s decision considered the positive 13-year relationship the two entities had.
“This includes a shared commitment to addressing complex challenges such as climate change,” he said.
“Effective and appropriate climate action is critical for us all and Woodside has made significant commitments to the energy transition while maintaining secure and reliable energy supplies for Western Australian households and businesses.
“We look forward to working closely with Woodside as they play an influential role in the energy transition, and we thank Woodside for their commitment to our club and look forward to continuing our journey together.”
Woodside were keen to keep their longstanding relationship with the Dockers, with the company’s chief executive Meg O’Neill even addressing the playing group about climate change earlier this year.
O’Neill said the company would continue to help the Dockers’ reconciliation efforts.
“We are committed to partnerships that will strengthen the health, education and well-being of the places where we live and work. Our renewed partnership with the Dockers will make a genuine difference to communities in Western Australia,” she said.
“As we move forward in the energy transition, partnerships with organisations such as the Dockers who prioritise sustainable outcomes will be critical.
“We are proud to work with the Dockers as we all focus on a lower carbon, equitable and sustainable energy future.”
Speaking on behalf of the members who pushed for the deal to be scrapped Greenpeace campaigner Sophie McNeill said it was gutting that the Dockers had chosen Woodside and its shareholders over the best interest of the team.
“This is a sad day in Freo’s history,” she said.
“This is about more than football, it’s about being on the right side of history and Freo have failed that test.
“Many within Freo were not keen to keep them, they know the reputational risk this climate-wrecking company poses to the club, and they had been looking around for other sponsors but Woodside offered more money and a shorter contract, that’s how desperate they were to keep this greenwashing going.
“Woodside are just in the business of buying mates here in WA through sponsorship deals, hoping people will be fooled into believing they are good guys when they are actually pursuing incredibly harmful projects.”
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