Comments for Court Talk

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Peter

Peter — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:02:14 +0000

Let’s not lose sight of who is responsible for the demise of state league – not the clubs, not the players… it is Tennis West!
It was only 3 years ago when the men’s and women’s state league had 8 teams competing. Plenty of media coverage (radio adverts, live streaming with commentary, newspaper articles weekly) to excite and delight the sporting community, plus a state league competition that enticed sponsors to come on for tennis west and clubs. The reality is only a few players stayed at one club during the past 29 years. Dave Culley played for 2, Hlawaty played for 2, Big D played for about 4, Leubs played for 3, Patsy played for 4, lutts played for about 4, Flash played for about 4, Props played for about 4… the reality is players did chase the opportunity play up the order. Tennis West have dropped the ball in promoting and providing a platform that excites and delights players, clubs and sponsors…. The blame does sits with tennis west…

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Chris

Chris — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:01:50 +0000

the best info that I have been able to find is that South Mandurah TC was founded in 1999. In short, all tennis clubs were built in Perth when the population of Perth then was less than 1.35M. It is now 2.45M. This is truly an abject failure of TW’s administration of the sport given that no new tennis clubs have been built in Perth in nearly 30 odd years, despite the population nearly doubling.

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:01:23 +0000

Yes. They would all be approximately the same age. I used to coach up in those areas in the early 80’s, from North Beach through to Wanneroo

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Chris

Chris — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:01:03 +0000

Glenn – I had a quick scan and it looks like Ocean Ridge TC is +40 years old, North Shore Country Club is + 40 yo, and Wanneroo TC is + 50 yo. It appears as though the new Alkimos Sporting precinct contains eight multi courts – but it doesn’t appear to actually be a tennis club …

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:00:36 +0000

Sorrento has been around since the 1970’s but I think they moved to the new location around 1980/1981. There is also a bunch of clubs splattered through the northern suburbs like ocean ridge ect, however I’m not sure there is any past there just like the southern suburbs no new clubs

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Chris

Chris — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:00:20 +0000

Michael – they are all wonderful clubs, as are South Perth TC and Maylands too which also fit in the broader catchment. Whilst we see eye to eye on most things, the three points I’d make here are:
1) the STC already competes with all of the catchment area’s clubs given that it runs both coaching programs and tournaments, and actively poaches high performance players for their squads.
2) my view is that the core and fundamental problem with TW is that it is completely removed from the tennis coalface in WA which is non elite & non high performance tennis. From an economic perspective of what keeps the lawns mowed and lights on at tennis clubs – it’s the rank and file members. The basis for investment from local councils is principally membership numbers and membership growth – not pennants shields etc. The TW constitution is explicitly clear that it’s core function is grow tennis in WA, and yet, tennis by both participation and economics are the clubs and everyday members. By making the STC a club, which would then have the same trials and tribulations of all of the other wonderful clubs in WA, TW would be forced to be accountable for club performance. Lots of positives would likely then come out of this as they looked to innovate and solve problems etc eg tools and resources for membership attraction, retention, growth, activisation etc that could then be shared with the clubs – tools that enable the entire pie to grow.
3) Tennis membership across all of the aforementioned clubs should have grown substantially over the past 30 years. Even just for basic context, the population of just the town of City of Vic Park was circa 26k in 1995, it is now roughly 43k, and is envisaged to grow to 64k by 2046. There are more than enough punters to support all of the clubs and where all clubs thrive. The question is what pieces of the puzzle are missing to enable all clubs to run sophisticated BD / sales funnels to drive membership growth. This is where TW should be leading from the front and using their significant marketing budget, to build and support capability in the state’s wonderful volunteer led clubs. TW needs to do much much more to help all WA clubs – by handing them the same bundle of problems and challenges that clubs already face – just maybe they’d start to look to help solve them.

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Michael

Michael — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:59:38 +0000

the STC should be pushing people in those areas to Higgins park, hensman park, ribbon park, loton park and so on. As I think it would be a conflict of interest if it became a club.

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Colin

Colin — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:59:16 +0000

pickleball venues being built, padel venues being built but no new tennis venues in the past 20 years that I can think of… if we look at the geography, effectively, 40% of Perth has no easy access to tennis courts … an absolute disaster in the making 😕

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by June Vance Samuels

June Vance Samuels — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:58:55 +0000

All very true as a junior some 75 years ago it was all ranked junior players aim to play wa state league for your club mine being rkptc

Comment on WA Tennis: We Long for the Glory Days — But Were the Real Glory Days More Recent Than We Think? by Scott

Scott — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:58:25 +0000

The players need to also understand their roles here as well. You always see the US College kids promoting their tennis on socials, but rarely do you see them promoting WA State League. I think that comes back to the clubs as well. I feel like there needs to be a pause, then a serious re-think on how this should be done moving forward.