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Penrith centre Michael Jennings claims the AFL’s plan to use Israel Folau as the lure to entice western Sydney’s large Polynesian contingent to take up Aussie Rules is flawed.
And it has nothing to do with concerns over Folau’s ability to play the game once he makes the switch next season, but rather the fundamentals on which the game of Aussie Rules is based.
“The blokes with the islander backgrounds, they love their contact sport – when I was growing up I hated AFL … it just wasn’t a contact sport,” says Jennings, whose Tongan background saw him represent the tiny pacific nation at the 2008 World Cup before progressing to NSW and Australian sides last year.
“Out here they like the contact sport and the aggression in our game.”
While Folau was touted by Greater Western Sydney officials as the recognisable face the new AFL franchise needed to get kids playing its game, there is little doubt the 21-year-old’s Polynesian background played some part in their desperation to land the NRL star.
The Polynesian community is seen as an untapped market in AFL quarters, with the exponential growth in numbers of players from Pacific islander backgrounds having had a profound impact on the game in terms of skill, power and in the pure ferocity of collisions.
Jennings says he can’t see AFL making much of an impact in western Sydney during his stay in rugby league, ridiculing suggestions children were turning up in their droves to play the game in the parks surrounding GWS’s Blacktown base.
“The only thing out there is the stadium and the big lights,” Jennings said.
“I think they leave the lights on at night on purpose and there’s no-one on the field (just) so that people can see there’s a field there.
“To be honest it’s a massive league base out there and they’ve got strong grassroots development – it’s really strong out there.
“I don’t see any time when I’m in league, I don’t see it (AFL) going any good.”
With Folau the new poster boy of AFL in Sydney’s west, he and Jennings will now transfer their on-field battles from the NRL into public relations tussles for the hearts and minds of one of the state’s real growth areas.
Jennings was thrown up as the example by David Gallop when the NRL chief executive chose to detail why generational support would continue to see rugby league ward off challenges from rival codes in their heartland.
“The great thing about grassroots footy for us in western Sydney is that we don’t operate a draft system, so we are turning local kids into local heroes out there,” Gallop said.
“Michael Jennings grows up at Penrith and goes onto become a superstar in his district and play representative football, that’s the thing that rugby league can do and the AFL can’t do.”
Told of the fact he was being proclaimed as a role model, Jennings – who is in the final stages of agreeing to a new deal with the Panthers for the next three years – said it was something he would embrace.
“That means a lot because when I was coming through it was good to see Craig Gower, Tony Puletua playing for the Panthers and looking up to them and then playing with them was even better,” Jennings said.
“I guess for the younger generation I do want to be a role model for them and I do want to stay (at Penrith) and make it all happen out there.”
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