Life Member Luncheon Recap

Swan Districts Football Club officially presented this years Life Members, 10 Year Merit Certificate awardees and our 2026 Ball Legend at this years opening round luncheon.
Life Membership was awarded to John Komorowski, our 10 Year Merit Certificate awardees for 2026 being Ian Westmore, Greg Wardell-Johnson and Norm Tame and our 2026 Ball Legend, John Cooper.

John Komorowski – Life Membership

A supporter of Swans since 1961 and a member since 1978, John has a lifetime involvement in our club.

John then joined the Past Players and Officials (PPOA) coterie group in 1989 and has contributed to many fundraising initiatives including selling game day raffle tickets between 1989 and 2020 and joining the committee in 1995.

John was also the recipient of a 2001 club and AFL certificate of recognition as a volunteer during the International Year of Volunteers.

In 2006 John was awarded Life Membership of the PPOA and continues as the Secretary of the PPOA since 2013. Receiving a club 10-year Certificate in 2014 John continues to provide assistance wherever required including: Promoting the PPOA via social media, volunteer/coordinator Heritage and Memorabilia Committee, design, and maintenance of the SDFC Hall of Fame Cabinets.

John joined the Board in 2025 and continues to provide valuable input and is a very worthy recipient of a Swan Districts Football Club Life Membership.

Ian Westmore – 10 Year Merit Certificate

Ian served as our Swans District (Junior clubs) Chair from 2010 to 2020 when he joined our Board of Directors.

In his time as Chair of Swan’s District our junior clubs were a very well-run organisation with Ian directly contributing to increasing participation across all grades.

Ian was very well respected within this portfolio and was an excellent choice. Ian was surprisingly overlooked to continue at this role when the WAFC changed the district model and we had no hesitation encouraging Ian to nominate for our board of directors.

Ian transitioned seamlessly onto our board in 2021 and remained a strong board member until his resignation mid-2025. Ian chaired our Social Impact Committee for the five years he was a board member and chaired several sub committees including the Youth Advisory Committee, Aboriginal Advisory Committee, Disability Advocacy Inclusion Committee, and the LGBTQI+ Reference Group. Ian served these committees with 100% commitment and is well deserving of receiving a Ten-year certificate after more than 15 years continuous service to the SDFC.

Greg Wardell-Johnson – 10 Year Merit Certificate

Greg first became involved with Swan Districts as the club historian in 2004. His encyclopaedic knowledge of not just Swan Districts players, but WAFL and its history, has been invaluable in his roles as part of both the Swan Districts Hall of Fame the Heritage Committee. A lifelong supporter of the club since his childhood and Life Member of the WAFL, Greg is well deserving of his 10-year certificate with Swan Districts Football Club.

Norm Tame – 10 Year Merit Certificate 

Already a life member of Claremont, Norm joined Swan Districts as a video analyst in 2012 after his involvement with the Fremantle Dockers came to an end in 2011. This involved not only compiling match footage for the coaching staff during the week, but also standing at one end of the ground on some scaffolding from the start of the colts game to the end of the league game, irrespective of the conditions. Now ensconced in the safety of the coaches box on match days, Norm is more than qualified to receive his 10 year certificate.

John Cooper – Ball Legend 

Twenty six years ago the WAFL established a tradition for each club to name a legend to be the club’s Ball Legend for the season. To date Swan Districts has had 25 WAFL Ball Legends with stella careers at the club including the like of Hayden Bunton Jnr, Bill Walker, Keith Slater, Keith and Phil Narkle, Shane Beros, Mike Richardson and last year’s ball legend Tallan Ames.

The player’s name, image and statistics will be on every ball used in every League home game at Steel Blue Oval during the season.

The 2026 WAFL Ball Legend is John Cooper.

John’s list of achievements include;

• 122 WAFL Games (1951-1958)
• President of SDFC in 1976-1982
• WA Football Hall of Fame 2010
• WAFL Life Member 1981
• NFL Certificate of Merit in 1993
• SFDC Life Membership in 1969
• Order of Australia in 2000
• SDFC Hall of Fame Immortal (2021)

We thank each attendee of our Life Members Luncheon, and look forward to hosting the next Legends Luncheon on Saturday 18 April. Keep an eye our on our website, social media and the Fighting Swan for more information.