West Coast stars were given a warm welcome today by the children of South Ballajura Primary School who had won the chance to get their hands dirty with some of their football heroes, all in the name of conservation.
As the winners of a competition run by Toyota WA, South Ballajura played host to Tyson Stenglein, Darren Glass, Matt Rosa, Sam Butler, Ash Hansen, Adam Hunter and Brent Staker on Schools Tree Day, an initiative of Planet Ark which encourages kids across the country to come together and plant trees to repair, revegetate and restore Australia’s landscape.
Schools have played an important role in the overall success of Schools Tree Day and National Tree Day, with more than two million volunteers having helped to plant 13 million native plants since the initiative began in 1996.
The boys were happy to get into the spirit of things, teaming up with the children to plant native shrubs, kindly donated by Toyota WA, in the brilliant winter sunshine.
Glass said he had learnt a lot about the environment from the experience and looked forward to planting his new favourite tree, the eucalyptus platypus, in the back garden at home.
“It is great to get out and do something good for the environment,” Glass said. “We’ve teamed up with Toyota and have come out here to South Ballajura to plant some trees all in the name of the environment, so it’s a great cause.”
A couple of days out from the Bombers clash on Sunday, the skipper revealed he was expecting a finals-like intensity from Essendon, who are currently cling to eighth position, despite the loss of a host of stars including Matthew Lloyd and Mark McVeigh.
“I hope there is a lift of intensity. We want to take sides on at their best. We want to test ourselves against the best. So we hope Essendon come over and play their best footy and we want know where we’re at.”
With elevated rookie Callum Wilson set to make Sunday his AFL debut, Glass said the Subiaco crowd could expect big things from the big man.
“We’ve had some terrific young players coming through producing good form at WAFL level like Call Wilson and he deserves his chance to make his debut this week.
“He started the year down back with South Fremantle, but he’s really found his niche up there at full-forward so it will be pretty exciting to see him in action on Sunday.
“He’s a big boy who leads nice and hard. He attacks the footy pretty hard and has a terrific set of hands, so you’ll see a more traditional full-forward.”
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