Woodside signs 3-yr Dockers deal

Woodside has stepped up its commitment to the Fremantle Football Club by signing a three-year major sponsorship deal.

The oil and gas major joins the Integrated Group as the club's two major sponsors for the 2010 Australian Football League.

Woodside has been a corporate partner of the Dockers for the past four years and the new deal will see the petroleum company's logo on the players' jerseys until the end of the 2012 AFL season.

The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

Woodside chief executive Don Voelte told staff in a memo obtained by WA Business News that the decision to sponsor the Dockers over the West Coast Eagles was simply a question of sponsorship availability.

"You may ask why we are supporting the Fremantle Dockers over the West Coast Eagles," Mr Voelte starts.

"The simple answer is that a major sponsorship of Fremantle was available. A major sponsorship of West Coast was not."

As for the football club's on-field success, Mr Voelte said in a statement that while Fremantle has yet to achieve sustained success, "we know the club will be rewarding its supporter in the future".

The announcement is below:

Western Australia's biggest publicly listed company Woodside Energy has signed on as a major sponsor of the Fremantle Football Club.

Fremantle chief executive officer Steve Rosich said that Woodside, which has been a corporate partner for the past four years, had agreed to a three-year major sponsorship through to the end of the 2012 AFL season.

In making the sponsorship announcement today, Rosich referred to comments made in a recent address by Woodside CEO and Managing Director Don Voelte on the company's humble beginnings more than 50 years ago.

"In his speech, Don talked about Woodside being the ultimate success story of the 'little guy' who aspired to be much more...the underdog who defied the odds and is still defying the odds today," he said.

"By defying the odds, Woodside became a proud West Australian company that is a leader in its field and a major player in Australia's multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas industry.

"On behalf of our club I would like to thank Don and his management team for the faith that they have in our club's strategic direction to secure sustained success and we look forward to a long partnership together as two proud Western Australian entities with heart that aspire to be the best at what they do."

Voelte said that Woodside and Fremantle have a lot in common.

"It took us a few years to get going, to get the success that we strived for, but having got there we think we've rewarded our supporters many times over," he said.

"Fremantle is yet to achieve the sustained success that it is striving for but we know the club will be rewarding its supporters in the future.

"I've only been at Woodside for five-and-a-half-years, but in that time I've come to admire the Fremantle Football Club and I look forward to Woodside being a major supporter of the club for at least the next three years."

Rosich said that the agreement with Woodside would see it join another proud company that also started with humble beginnings in WA, the Integrated Group, as the club's two major sponsors for season 2010.

"The Woodside Energy logo will feature prominently on the front of our traditional purple strip and on the back of our popular white clash strip - representing a joining of two proud Western Australian entities," he said.

"We also thank current major sponsor LG Electronics for their support over the past four years and we look forward to LG continuing to support Fremantle as a Gold Level sponsor in 2010."