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West Coast Fever confident they’ll retain sponsors, partners after salary cap breaches

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Mitchell WoodcockThe West Australian
West Coast Fever are confident they’ll retain all their sponsors and partners after their salary cap scandal.
Camera IconWest Coast Fever are confident they’ll retain all their sponsors and partners after their salary cap scandal. Credit: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

West Coast Fever chair Suzanne Ardagh is confident the club won’t lose any sponsors or partners, including the West Coast Eagles as part of the fallout from it’s salary cap scandal.

Ardagh was announced as former chair Deane Pieters replacement earlier this week as Fever came clean on its deliberate attempts to cheat Super Netball’s total player payment caps over the 2018-19 seasons.

The breaches cost the club a $300,000 fine, half suspended, and 12 premiership points (the equivalent to three games) and has seen them overhaul their operations.

One of these partners Ardagh is confident of retaining is the Eagles, who were caught up in the scandal after a source revealed salaries from jobs for Fever players at the AFL club were part of third-party deals outside of the salary cap.

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“What I found really encouraging is that our partners and our sponsors have been really supportive of us,” Ardagh told 6PR.

.New West Coast Fever chair Suzanne Ardagh.
Camera Icon.New West Coast Fever chair Suzanne Ardagh.
The Game AFL 2024

“They (the Eagles) have been a terrific partner over the years and very supportive. They’ve got a strong, iconic West Australian brand and I think that’s been very helpful to us as we’ve developed our brand in Western Australia.

“Hopefully we are going to be going into this season with all our partners with us. That’s certainly been what my understanding is.”

Ardagh said the club was changing its operations and culture.

“The first thing that we did was to do a complete governance review... basically it means that we had a look at all our systems, process and procedures to work out exactly what went wrong,” she said.

“Really going into the club and having a look at how we do things and the way we do things and where that failed us to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“I think we’re going to be looking at culture, to make sure the club’s culture reflects who we really are and put integrity and courage at the very centre of everything we do.” 

Part of the club’s review saw the appointment former coach Sue Gaudion to a new position of general manager of pathways and performance.

This role will have Gaudion oversee the operations and high performance pathways across grassroots netball and Fever.

Guadion replaces former general manager Mick Doherty, with the role changed as part of a restructure. 

Doherty joined Fever in August 2019 and held the role for one season. He was not implicated in any of the club’s salary cap breaches given he came on board after the contracts had been signed. 

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