Matthew Pavlich and Paul Hasleby were there to officially welcome Balmain as an affiliate club to the Fremantle Football.
As part of Fremantle’s Aligned Club program, the Balmain AFL Football Club will wear the Fremantle playing uniform from season 2007 onwards, proudly supplied to the club by Fremantle.
Balmain AFL football club, which plays in the yellow and black, was interested in getting a tie-in with an AFL club and when they approached Fremantle, naturally the club leapt at the opportunity.
"There are plenty of connections with the clubs- we're here at Five Dock Bay, there was Balmain dry dock, so it's a similar area with a similar culture, we thought the whole thing had a pretty good mix all round," said Balmain boss David Yole.
Balmain, are one of nine teams in the Sydney league and their coach is former Melbourne player Andrew Leoncelli who has been involved with the club for 18 months.
"I've been wearing a Tigers jumper which has been hard enough to deal with, so I'm looking forward to the change to Fremantle gear," he said.
Matthew Long, Fremantle’s first scholarship recipient under the AFL’s initiative to unearth and encourage football development in New South Wales was also at the launch.
In addition to the launch of Fremantle’s partnership with Balmain, a significant partnership was also launched with the North Ryde Australian Football Club through Fremantle’s “Adopt Our Jumper” program, an initiative that sees junior football clubs throughout Australia adopt the Fremantle playing uniforms as their own.
