Panizza receives Life MembershipFriday, September 8, 2023 - 5:30 PM

The West Australian Football Commission takes great pleasure in announcing and congratulating Darrell Panizza for being awarded Life Membership.

The WAFC Life Membership award is WA Football’s highest honour and serves to recognise those individuals that have made an outstanding contribution to football.

Panizza’s extraordinary contribution to football in WA extends not just to Perth but in Albany and the Great Southern, where he is a legend of the game. 

Panizza has a great history with Claremont, having joined the Colts side in 1978 from Albany before making the League side the following year. He was one of the fastest players in the WAFL in the 1980’s and he added a touch of brilliance to a team that went on to break a 17-year premiership drought in 1981 and play in three successive grand finals.

Panizza was a three-time premiership player who went on to coach Claremont to a premiership in 1996. He is the club’s all-time games record holder, having played 274 games and served on Claremont’s board for 10 years from 2013 and in 2009 was inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame.

But it’s in the Great Southern where Panizza continues his passion for football and preparing young players for the move to Perth in search of their football dream, which is why he was instrumental in forming the Great Southern Storm Football Development Institute.