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Kevin Parker, the frontman of Tame Impala frontman and the Fremantle Dockers’ number one ticket holder, has been spotted sporting his team’s jersey while performing on the band’s Deadbeat tour in America.
But an alteration to the outfit has rekindled simmering tension between the team’s fan base and one of its major sponsors.
While Parker, who lives in Fremantle, made his love of his home team clear on an international stage as the Dockers gear up for a huge preliminary final against Sydney on Friday, he also covered over the Woodside logo, igniting fresh calls for the Perth-headquartered oil and gas giant to be dropped as the team’s major sponsor.
Those demands are not new, with a petition urging the Dockers to ditch Woodside signed by 8000 people back in 2023, when the sponsorship deal was up for renewal.
Independent senator and former Wallabies test captain David Pocock also weighed in at the time, urging the club to dump the gas major as a sponsor when the deal expired.
That did not happen, with the club instead signing Woodside on as the major sponsor in 2024 until the end of 2027.
Parker’s protest against the oil and gas giant’s sponsorship followed a similar protest organised by the Get Off My Chest campaign.
Founder Clare Lagan used spray paint to cover up the Woodside logo on a public mural of former Dockers Michael Walters and Nat Fyfe outside the iconic Fremantle Markets at the weekend.
Lagan said the support of a high-profile fan like Parker showed how strong the sentiment against Woodside was among the Fremantle supporter base.
“Woodside has long been one of Australia’s most controversial companies and one of sport’s most controversial sponsors,” she said.
“We commend Kevin Parker and call on the Fremantle Football Club to end their partnership with Australia’s largest fossil fuel company.
“Kevin Parker’s statement is clear: this is not something Freo fans can support.
“Woodside’s sponsorships are not donations, they are distractions. They undermine community efforts to hold the gas industry accountable and to ensure they pay us what they owe us, an estimated $17 billion a year.”
Woodside did not comment on Parker’s decision, but told this masthead it loved its partnership of more than 15 years with the Fremantle Football Club.
“It’s great to see the success the club is having this year. We’re looking forward to continuing our work together,” a spokesperson said.
Conservation Council of WA fossil fuels program manager Gerard Mazza said Parker’s decision to tape-out the Woodside logo sent a strong message on the world stage and had restarted the conversation back home, in a typically environmentally focused electorate.
“The Browse project would have a significant cost for Western Australians,” he said.
“This project is so carbon-intensive and costly it risks increasing WA’s domestic gas prices by as much as four times.”
Woodside has jumped on the finals bandwagon as well, hanging a “Wharfie Time” banner across the windows of its headquarters, which is visible to all traffic inbound to Perth’s CBD from the busy southern corridor.
The Fremantle Dockers did not respond to questions from this masthead, and a media representative for Parker said he was unavailable for comment due to being on tour.
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Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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