Alan McFarland uses raffle win to rename Railways Football Club home ground to Keep the Sheep stadium

An Albany football club has thrown its weight behind the Keep the Sheep campaign after a Katanning man won naming rights for its stadium in a raffle. Alan McFarland used his winning ticket to rename Railways Football and Sporting Club to Keep the Sheep Stadium for 2025 to protest the Federal Government’s decision to ban live sheep exports by 2028. Mr McFarland, a former shire president of Katanning, 2024 citizen of the year and furniture store owner, said he chose the name to keep the grassroots campaign in the public eye. “I’m not much of a footy man in any way shape or form, however, I’m very keen on communities doing the right thing,” he said. “I gave it a bit of thought and decided I could only go for Keep the Sheep, as it is one of those very important things for regional Australia. “It’s not just the farmers, it’s the whole community surrounding the farmers — from volunteers, sporting clubs to bushfire brigades or ambos, schools — it’s all intertwined. “So the more we can bring back a focus on rural and regional Australia, the better.” Founded in 1946, Railway’s Football and Sporting Club launched the fundraising raffle for the stadium’s naming rights in July, hoping to raise $500,000 to finish refurbishing its ageing Centennial Park facility. While the raffle only raised $61,000, club president Wayne Stubber said he was “pretty confident” the club would find the money to finish the second stage of the “almost $2 million” rebuild that includes new male and female change rooms, a new kitchen and a new bar. “We’ve still got a bit of work to do but it’s coming forward in leaps and bounds,” he said. Mr Stubber said he wasn’t thinking about the name while the raffle tickets were on sale until the last few nights when he thought “oh, god what have we done here?”. But he “couldn’t be any happier” with the winner’s choice. “As everybody’s aware, Albany is a central hub for the agricultural and regional area, and we really rely on the agricultural sector, and obviously sheep are a major factor in that,” he said. Mr Stubber said he hoped the club could give the campaign “plenty more exposure over the next 12 months”. “Hopefully, next year we’ll have a nice, shiny new building, and where the Railways Football and Sporting Club sign is on the roof up there, Keep the Sheep will sit proudly,” he said. Second prize of the raffle went to Michael “Fatty” Cramer, who named the clubs bar Legends Bar and third prize was won by Karen Hounsfield who won $1000. The names will come into effect from January 1, 2025.