Western United’s Nathan Perrone discusses BrandScent partnership and the commitment to support local community

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Western United has recently added BrandScent to their list of partners signing a three-year deal to help create a signature scent at their home ground, Ironbark Fields.

Based out in Truganina in Melbourne’s west, the multi-award-winning scent marketing agency, run by Suji and Jeeva Sanjeevan, made their name through the TV show Shark Tank in 2023.

BrandScent are now breaking into the Australian sporting landscape and are hoping to collaborate with other sporting organisations as well.

Leading and coordinating these partnerships is Nathan Perrone, Western United’s Commercial Partnership Executive, who has been at the club since February 2022.

Perrone describes how BrandScent initially got onto the club’s radar regarding a potential partnership.

“A lot of credit goes to my former boss Chris Speldewinde (who formerly worked in the GM commercial role at Western United),” he said to Soccerscene.

“He started these conversations with Jeeva and Suji at the backend of last year and became connected through the local community.

Despite being a relatively small business, BrandScent has already worked with a range of companies in Australia and internationally.

With this collaboration, Western United got the opportunity to talk and potentially expand their list of partners. Alongside BrandScent, they were able to add a partner who was local to the area.

“They provided us with contacts and new clients that we could talk to,” Perrone said.

“They have worked with massive companies not just in Australia but globally, such as American Express and Arnott’s.

“For them too, it was important to support local and break into the sporting space and do a proper partnership.”

Ever since their inception, Western United have shown their strong support towards Melbourne’s western suburbs throughout the years.

The club are partners with the Wyndham City Council, Victoria University and Werribee & Western Automotive Group to name a few and are all located out west.

“We’re really emphasising the chance to connect with fans and businesses in the region, to help the whole Wyndham City Council and those in it to provide better opportunities,” Perrone said.

It has taken some time for Western United to cement their place in the west, having to wait for Ironbark Fields in Tarneit to be completed.

For both the men’s and women’s teams, they have had to play their home games elsewhere – such as AAMI Park, City Vista Recreation Reserve and North Hobart Oval.

“For us as a club, it’s been challenging when we haven’t been in the region we had hoped to be from year one,” Perrone said.

However, Western United have finally established Ironbark Fields as their home and for local businesses such as BrandScent, it will make it easier and more accessible for them to collaborate with projects such as creating the club’s signature scent for the upcoming season.

“It’s a three-phase project,” Perrone added.

“Phase one was introducing to some staff and players how it works.

“Everyone was smelling scents and trying to get an understanding of what smells represent the club and the first phase is essentially done.

“They’re now working on some things based on everyone’s feedback and they’ll come back to us to refine it again.

“They’ll do some more research, and we’ll go into the final stage and start to roll it out.”

In addition, both Western United and BrandScent are aiming to connect with the local clubs in the west through their partnership.

“We are looking to do more opportunities with players and even local clubs to create a workshop where you can create your own fragrance,” Perrone said.

With the support and resources from BrandScent, Western United are hoping to leave a lasting impression to those who come down to Ironbark Fields.

“For a new client commercially or a new player or staff member you want to make it very welcoming,” Perrone said.

“With the scent created by BrandScent, it will help leave a good impression and hopefully create a positive reaction.”

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Active Club Program offers South Australian football clubs a funding boost

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Image Credits: Shutterstock 2327752993

South Australian football clubs can tap into another round of government support, with the Active Club Program offering grants of up to $3,000 to help clubs improve participation and strengthen their local communities. The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) opened its new round of funding on the 28th of August. Clubs have until midday on Wednesday, 14 October 2026 to apply.

The grassroots benefits

The South Australian Government has allocated $1.448 million to the round. Clubs with fewer than 100 members can receive $1,500. Clubs with 100 or more members can receive $3,000. The program targets grassroots sport, including football. It helps clubs purchase equipment and resources that make participation easier and more affordable.

Football clubs can use the funding for sporting equipment, uniforms and protective gear. They can also fund playing venue maintenance equipment, professional development, medical equipment and training. The program also supports projects that improve inclusion. Clubs can use grants for positive health initiatives and hardship subsidies. These measures can help remove barriers that stop people from playing sport.

That focus creates opportunities for football clubs to support more women and girls. It can also help clubs create more welcoming environments for players of different ages and backgrounds. Water and energy efficiency also form part of the program. Clubs can fund eligible initiatives that reduce water use or improve energy efficiency. That could prove particularly valuable for football clubs managing local playing venues and facilities. The program also allows minor club infrastructure upgrades and technology that directly supports participation or club sustainability.

Who is eligible?

To qualify, a club must operate as a not-for-profit sport or active recreation organisation in South Australia. It must have at least 20 members and have operated for at least 12 months.

ORSR will also consider a club’s participation profile when assessing applications. The assessment looks at female and male junior and senior participation, alongside factors such as the club’s affiliation and when it last received Active Club Program funding.

How to apply

The funding can make a direct difference at grassroots level. In the previous round, 558 South Australian clubs shared more than $1.4 million. The government says the investment helped clubs meet essential costs while supporting participation and inclusion.

For football, that support can stretch beyond the playing field. Stronger clubs create more opportunities for players, coaches and volunteers. They also provide places where people can build connections and stay active. Applications for Round 56 will be screened in November, assessed in December, with clubs notified in January 2027.

To learn more about the South Australian Active Club Program, visit their website.

The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

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If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

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