Fremantle President Dale Alcock has responded to an open letter sent to the club on Wednesday regarding the club’s Woodside partnership.

“I, on behalf of Fremantle Football Club, acknowledge that climate change and sustainability are key social issues,” Alcock told Radio 6PR.

“The issue is complex – it’s an important one – but it’s complex.

“The duty of our Board is to listen, to maintain balance, give things due consideration, not be reactive and then make the best decisions for our club.

“That’s the important role we’ve got to play here.

“We are respectful of the point of view of others – not just on this subject - but there’s a lot of issues that are impacting sport.”

Woodside joined Fremantle as a major sponsor in 2010 and the current partnership extends to the end of 2023.

“There’s obligations to abide by that contract and that’s what we’ll be doing,” Alcock said.

“With any contract, both parties will sit down and review it as it advances towards its conclusion.”

Alcock says Woodside is invested in many of Fremantle’s community programs and continues to work closely with Board and management on the club’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

“We can go straight to logos on jumpers, but there’s community programs that are deeply embedded in the WA community and the progress of our RAP plan at Fremantle we’ve worked on with Woodside,” Alcock told 6PR.

“If you look at community sport – all the way through to the elite level – you need corporate support, you need sponsorship.

“In Western Australia we don’t have too many (corporations) that are headquartered in Perth - and many of those that are in WA are resource related.

“Clearly half of our economy in Western Australia is resource related. It’s hard to avoid having relationships with resource companies and those resource companies are large employers – and large supporters – of our community.

“That is something we cannot disconnect from in Western Australia.”