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Will Aussie rules ever have a credible international game and do we even care?

Roar Guru
10th January, 2018
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Australian team during the singing of the national anthems during game one of the International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland at Adelaide Oval on November 12, 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
10th January, 2018
144
2005 Reads

I must admit I am torn. On one hand I would love Australian football to have a buoyant, viable international presence.

On the other hand I love we have a great treasure all to ourselves, a game that gives many people an Australian grounding and identity, a game that can be traced back to the very early roots of this country’s European history and even further if you subscribe to the Marn Grook theory to which I do.

There is even talk that Ned Kelly played for Williamstown VFA club in the 1870s while serving a sentence on a prison ship in the bay as a 17-year-old. He was apparently a gun CHB with a bit of a temper.

I love the fact we have a game to show off to international visitors, guests and tourists, like Gaelic footy or hurling in Ireland, shinty in Scotland, ice hockey in Canada, American Football in the US.

It’s our own game, I love the fact that with each immigration wave to this country a new layer gets added to the sport.

So exactly how international is our game, how well is it known, is it growing, it is worth persevering with internationally, will AFLX change the international outlook of the game, or are we just wasting a bit of time here?

Should the AFL invest more money into it?

Rory Sloane

(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

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If we look locally and by locally I mean Oceania and NZ, the game has a bit of traction, particularly in Papua New Guinea where the game has been played since at least the 1940s and more recently in NZ.

The AFLNZ website is worth having a look at, they seem quite organised in New Zealand and of course the only other country in the world where Australian football is number one is Nauru.

If we look wider there are organised leagues in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and different countries in Europe, Denmark has quite an organised league. The US nationals which are held every year is the biggest organised festival of Australian football in the world, with over 50 18-a-side teams participating.

Their websites are all worth having a look at and generally up to date.

There are also leagues in the Middle East, Asia and South Africa all varying in size.

It is also worth pointing out that globalisation and the internet has increased football’s reach rather than see it retreating back to its roots.

All these leagues have grown in general despite a lack of AFL support. South Africa and New Zealand seem to be the exceptions where the AFL seem to have kicked in some funds or sought sponsorship to cover costs. I also understand that AFL Queensland helps fund Papua New Guinea and Papua New Guinea teams play in Queensland underage champs.

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Should the AFL really focus on a couple of countries and pour resources into them? Should it just focus on NSW and Queensland?.

Should the AFL abandon any international development whatsoever, is the idea of international growth actually a detriment to the game which could see bigger money from overseas take the best players away from here in the future?

Do international players ‘steal’ list places from more deserving Australians? More and more international players lead to less and less Australians on AFL lists.

If we review where the current international draft picks come from, the US seems to provide ruckman types from a basketball background and Ireland contributes HB flanker types from Gaelic footy.

I don’t have the exact figures but there seems to be around ten Irishman on AFL lists, a couple of Americans and a couple of Kiwis.

If we use AFLX for example, the Irish could probably put a pretty competitive team on the park, in fact a competitive Irish team could possibly lead to the AFLX pre-season tournament featuring an Irish team.

I wonder what sort of financial incentive there is for the AFL to televise these type of games to Ireland.

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I understand that the Australian international rules team will play a Test match in a US city to be nominated against the Irish, so there is some irons in the fire as far as IR goes.

Roarers, what do you think about the current state of the game outside Australia, is it growing, is it worth growing, what are the benefits, what are the negatives?

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