He checks his boots are tight; he exhales deeply, releasing only some of the nerves in his gut, nerves that a have been a constant companion in the lead-up to this final.
His black attire and the huge stadium that awaits mean he could be an All Black but he’s not. He’s playing Australia’s game. Something more New Zealanders are doing both at home and across the ditch.
David Rattenbury is a New Zealand Falcon, a member of the nation’s Aussie rules team. In 2008 he played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the final of the Oceania Cup.
“It was incredible playing there. I realised the gravity of how important it is to play on there,” he says, the excitement still in his voice. “There is an aura on that field.”
Gracing the MCG is something not many New Zealanders get to do. On occasion the All Blacks do and the Black Caps do when they tour Australia. But playing AFL could mean the opportunity for Kiwis to regularly be the gladiators at the modern day coliseum.
Robert Vanstam, the Chief Executive of New Zealand AFL says the game “provides opportunities for young people”.
“There is a better chance of playing top level AFL being from New Zealand than from Melbourne.”
The opportunities AFL offers are wide and varied. Not only does the national team get to play overseas but there are scholarships for international players.
Each AFL club has a quota for eight overseas players in its roster. With two additional clubs coming into the AFL competition, the demand for the best young athletes has increased and that is where elite Kiwi athletes come into the equation.
Vanstam describes New Zealand as a market of four million people. “There has to be talent. It’s just a matter of finding it.”
As well as the talent. New Zealand has many advantages for AFL clubs.
“It doesn’t cost much to get over to NZ,” says Vanstam. It is closer to Melbourne than Perth is and Kiwis can be set up in Melbourne in a day with no requirements for visas.
The Hawthorn Football Club Melbourne has the Trent Croad scholarship for New Zealanders, named after the New Zealand-born AFL star.
Tauranga teenager Kurt Heatherley was the first recipient of the AFL International Scholarship. A talented basketballer and rugby player, Heatherley was signed by Hawthorn as a part of the scholarship. He receives specialist coaching through Hawthorn, travelling regularly from the Bay of Plenty to Melbourne to train at the club.
In order for young Kiwis to get to this elite level a lot of work is being done at the grassroots.
“In New Zealand we are long-term business. Our plan is that one in 20 kids will be able to kick a football.” Vanstam says.
Ben Boyle is a physical education teacher at St Peter’s College and the coach of the senior AFL side at the school. He says AFL is less physically demanding than the rugby codes and this could appeal to youngsters.
“It is less physical and there is more space. It is more skillful than rugby or league.”
All this work by the AFL means that other codes are benefiting from the up-skilling young New Zealanders are receiving.
Former All Black first five-eighth Nick Evans was an AFL player as a part of his apprenticeship before cracking the big time. His time in the Aussie code helped him improve his kicking.
The chairman of AFL New Zealand, Geoff Dickson says “six or seven years ago Nick targeted Australian football to develop kicking and marking skills. “
“AFL clubs were interested in him.”
Vanstam says if the All Blacks get the benefits, then “so be it”.
“I don’t mind because we’re not the chosen sport”. Only this year three kids from the NZ under 16’s AFL team were signed by the Junior Warriors.
AFL pre-season games played in New Zealand also exposed Kiwis to elite AFL. Brisbane and Adelaide were the last to play in front of a Kiwi audience, facing off in a preseason game in Wellington in 2001. Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs played in 2000, and Melbourne and Sydney in 1998.
The Bulldogs continue to flirt with the idea of playing competition games in New Zealand in the next two years.
Interestingly this is not AFL’s or Aussie Rules’ first foray into the Shaky Isles. ‘Victorian Rule’ as it was known then was played in New Zealand from the 1870’s due to New Zealand’s close relationship with Melbourne.
There were eight Aussie Rules teams in Auckland in 1908 but the code was never able to establish itself with the dominance of rugby union and the introduction of Rugby League to New Zealand. By the beginning of World War One Victorian Rules had disappeared from Auckland’s sporting landscape.
As well as his goals at junior level, Vanstam wants to grow the local senior competitions. Currently there are four leagues in New Zealand, with six teams in Auckland, four in Wellington and Canterbury, three in Waikato and a newly formed league in Otago.
The best players from the four domestic leagues are then picked for the New Zealand Falcons.
Twenty-five-year-old John Maling and David Rattenbury are teammates in the Falcons and at club level for the Waitakere Magpies.
Maling has played AFL since 2003, and made his debut for the national team two years later. He says. “A mate said come along and after one training I was hooked.” He adds that he watched AFL on television and thought he’d be good at it.
Rattenbury began playing in his final year at school and cracked the national team in 2008. Both players list the tour of Melbourne in 2008 for the International Cup as the career highlight. Making the final of that tournament meant they got to play on the hallowed turf of the MCG.
Maling remembers the final well. “It was the curtain raiser to an AFL finals game between the Western Bulldogs and the Hawthorn Hawks.”
“By the end of the game we were playing in front of 30,000.”
He laughs as he recalls the Aussies heckling him from the stands.
“They know more about the game than you do”.
Unfortunately the Falcons lost to Papua New Guinea. A team Maling amusingly describes as being full of “skillful, rock-hard athletes”.
He says the experience at the MCG was amazing and ridiculous. “I didn’t want to walk off. Guys like Lance Franklin were warming up. They’re absolute superstars.”
He says it was a privilege “playing Melbourne’s game on Melbourne’s ground”.
The New Zealand team spent two weeks playing and training in AFL-mad Victoria. According to Maling living “like professional athletes in AFL heartland.”
The AFL season is played over the summer months in New Zealand, allowing soccer, union and league players to participate.
Despite continuing to play Rugby Union, Rattenbury says AFL his is first choice sport. “It’s a nice mix of soccer and rugby.”
The AFL is hoping to get more and more New Zealanders saying exactly that. So that Aussie Rules is no longer a Kiwi oxymoron, it’s a game too.
Ryan
Guest
What a journo
djfrobinson
Guest
Sorry Bee. Aussie Rules might be the greatest sport in Australia but New Zealand and the Islands are different. I suspect you did not grow up in New Zealand else you would have a better understanding of the Kiwi mindset.
bee
Guest
Is that right mate Im half moari and used to play rugby and converted to afl .... folau and hunt have good skils as do a lot of islanders...thats why it will appear to them....the maori wars against the brittish were fought with random tactics 360 degrees(like afl) the brittish were regimented in lines with muskets (front on lines like rugby) ....iIslanders will be suited to australian football because of their dna and ntural intsincts ..(like aboriginal players freakish skills)
djfrobinson
Guest
AFL has no intention of living quietly side by side with the other sports in New Zealand. Its goal is to try and over take RU and be the king of sports in NZ. The way it has planned on doing this is by pushing into the schools teaching / forcing the game on children and attempting to brainwash them. It has nothing to do with the sport being truly interested in the well being of New Zealand’s children and everything to do with the bottom line of AFL TV deals. Don't try to tell me that this is about kids playing sport because there are a hundred other sports in New Zealand schools which kids can play. AFL is not required, as I've said before this is a Australian / Victorian game it should stay where it is strong and leave Rugby Union and Rugby League to share what talent that NZ has.
djfrobinson
Guest
The Rebels plavement was not a NZ decision. NZ simply voted for whatever the Australian Rugby Union thought was the best option. I do not know the make up of Australian rugby as my focus has always been the NZ competitions so I have no idea why the ARU would pick Melbourne. Putting the Rebels in melbourne is not a attack on either NRL or AFL its simply put another team in a already over-crowded sporting enviroment hoping it can pay stand on its own. AFL's goals in NZ are focusing on converting New Zealands school children. RU is not attempting to convert AFL fans to its way of life AFL seeks to push the other codes out of the market thats how I see it at the moment.
djfrobinson
Guest
Mod You should allow 2 Kiwis to discuss the good and bad points of allowing AFL in our country. We are not talking about a sport that's not happy to sit back and just allow people who want to play it / follow it etc on their choice. We are talking about a sport which has actively infiltrated New Zealand’s schools in a attempt challenge Rugby Union as the kingpin sport in New Zealand. Rugby Union is the culture that Kiwis are brought upon and the threat AFL poses with the tactics they are using is wrong. IF parents want their children to play AFL then that is their choice but force feeding the sport to our children is simply underhanded and wrong, not even Ruby League in its strongest period used such tactics. We are not Australians we are New Zealanders AFL should stay in its homeland and enjoy what they have one of the biggest sports in Australia. Stealing even a little bit of talent from New Zealand’s rugby pool will weaken "our code" and this should not be allowed to happen.
djfrobinson
Guest
EotP Are you actually a New Zealander?
Eyes on the prize
Guest
Regardless of opinions from Australians, New Zealanders, Australian Football followers, Rugby followers, League followers through out this blog, the targeted audience of AFL in New Zealand continues to grow. They do not read this blog and at the ages of 5 to 12, are not swayed by public opinion. They play games they enjoy and they are now growing up with a new game. Parents will find out more about it from their children. AFL KiwiKIck started in March 2009 and after 9 months had 1200 registered particpants that underwent 8 weeks of the junior programme. The last year has seen this figure increase to 7800 and with funding already secured for next year from New Zealand based sources, this is guarenteed to increase to 20,000 by the end of 2011. Will there be an AFL team in New Zealand one day? Who knows. If the community wants it then obviously it will come. If not, its nobodys fault. I do know that currently there a lots of kids that are enjoying the sport and the numbers are increasing and so the future will depend on their opinions rather than ours. The AFL, Hawthorn FC, the New Zealand Governement and New Zealands children, seems like a good formula to success.
FuLLy LoAdED MaN
Guest
49 - 3 and you enjoyed the game. Are you that easy to please?
djfrobinson
Guest
Hay Midfielder Yeah the game was pretty good shame we got slammed but oh well perhaps next year. The Phoenix need to really start playing their game like they did last year. I also got up and watched the All Black game, NZ 49 - Scotland 3. It was a good game and Scotland will improve without doubt.
Midfielder
Guest
djfrobinson If you went to the game, what did you think of weeMac...
HK47
Guest
5% of people are Upper class? To me that sounds about right.
HK47
Guest
I thought that choco wrote an article earlier on in the year about playing an AFL game in NZ on ANZAC day. WIth port modifying its Guernsy to a NZ version? http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/93715/default.aspx I have to say I agree
Westcoast929406
Guest
Jason, When the game restarted in the 1970`s in NZ it was mostlly expats and that continued through with increasing NZ participation until recent times. The sport was invisible so as to speak. However AFLNZ signed a deal with the AFL in circa 2005 and more support was forthcoming incl a general manager. The AFL in 2008 in adding 2 more teams in 2011 and 2012 and the Draft implications has resulted in a definite push to search for more talent, which leads us to the situation in 2010. The AFL Development Manager David Matthews now based in Sydney has summed it up succinctly when in China recently to attend an AFL Exhibition game. "For 150 years we did not try to expand the game internationally and now we are" Remember you are reflecting NZ attitudes today - Come back in 5 to 10 years when the young kids playing now are further down the track. My compass will be when NZ parents are helping to organise Kiwikick (Junior boys and girls on Saturdays and Sundays) like parents do in Oz with Auskick. When that happens the game will be ok over there. Here is the latest article on AFLNZ web site. Note the comments -"Obscure Sport" that is now but it will not remain that way. Link-- http://www.3news.co.nz/Aussie-Rules-making-inroads-in-NZ/tabid/423/articleID/185952/Default.aspx
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
btw - the language of 'corrupting New Zealand school children'........really??? Playing sport at school and encouraging healthy activity, creating new opportunities.....that ain't corrupting.
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
djfr - re your hypothetical. AFL certainly not taking on RU. And probably does and would complement it. The AFL aren't investing in NZ in any major way. The big money committed for the foreseeable future is NSW and QLD is on bedding in GWS and GCFC over the next 20 odd years. The AFL has to either seek to increase market share in those two states or risk losing all that has thus far been sustained/created. Standing still is not an option. The AFL in no way is seeking to displace the NRL - - for obvious reasons, the NRL a similar (perhaps as strong?) a home market fortress in Sydney/NSW as the AFL does in Melboure - - with a central cluster of clubs with long established historys. 1 or 2 teams in that market is not going to seriously undermine the 'home code'. Melb Storm for example adds to the NRL, but, does it diminish the AFL?? I don't really think so. Will GWS and Swans diminish the NRL seriously?? The thing that AFL differs from other codes is the AFL 'business' owns the game in essence, so, it owns Auskick and the development pathways. This makes it more efficient. But, can help people perhaps feel Your question about how the AFL would react?? Well, by virtue of the NZ component of SANZAR, NZ RU IS making an attack on Melbourne/Victoria. You're establishing a franchise in Melbourne, and the AB's have been heading over to Melb for years now to play test matches. The RUWC took matches to Melbourne back in 2003. Are they only interested in the cash though??? because, they haven't tried to add to the community by push the game at a grass roots level?? What's worse?? A cash grab? or, adding to the community at the grass roots?? (or, a combination of all of the above). How would the AFL react?? How should it react?? All codes need to lift their own game when increased competition arrives. Simple as that. Protectionism doesn't work in the long run.
djfrobinson
Guest
Kermit I agree with your statement. AFL has no connection to New Zealand. While other Australian competitions do, so it makes logical sense that those competitions would remember New Zealand in their ANZAC day games, and AFL wouldn’t. In regards to the point of New Zealand teams in Australian competitions - Rugby Union expanded over a very long period and Australian state teams were included in that expansion - Rugby League – the Auckland Warriors applied and were accepted into the competition - Netball – It was a joint agreement between the 2 nations netball teams However New Zealand is strong in all these sports and has something to offer, AFL is an unknown sport in New Zealand, the rules are not understood, and the tactics are not understood. AFL’s agenda in New Zealand seems to be to make sure that our kids understand this game, it’s not adults your attempt to convert to this sport of yours but our children. How would AFL react if the NZRU decided that every child in Victoria should be taught Rugby Union a game which is almost unheard of in the AFL heartland. Will AFL overtake Rugby Union in New Zealand? No, the pride and prestige of the Black Jersey and the ability to play international sport will keep Rugby at the top of the pecking order. Will AFL attempt to take on Union as the no.1 sport in New Zealand? Perhaps it’s certainly attempt to increase its profile in an underhanded way, focusing on corrupting New Zealand’s school children rather than attempting to do what it did in NSW. I’ve watched with interest as AFL has pushed into NSW’s a area which is hostile, it has not won the battle to be the top sport there but it has done great damage and I’d rather not see this hostile sport attempt any such move in my country.
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
Only a couple of days to go to the National Draft - one of the biggest days on the AFL calendar. Funny there's no coverage thus far on theRoar?? the selection order is all locked in now - By club Adelaide Crows 14, 61, 82 (PR), 97 (PR), 107 (PR) Brisbane Lions 5, 25, 28, 32, 65 (PR) Carlton 18, 34, 42, 67, 70, 85 (PR), 99 (PR), 108 (PR) Collingwood 45, 46, 60, 76, 77, 91 (PR), 92 (PR), 104 (SP) Essendon 8, 31, 48, 64, 80, 95, 106 (PR) Fremantle 20, 44, 56, 72, 87 (PR), 100 (PR), 109 (PR), 112 (PR) Geelong Cats 15, 23, 37, 54, 58 (PR) Gold Coast Suns 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 39, 49, 105 Hawthorn 19, 38, 55, 66, 86 Melbourne 12, 33, 50, 53, 81 (PR), 96 (PR) North Melbourne 17, 27, 69, 71, 98 (PR) Port Adelaide 16, 35, 36, 52, 68 (PR), 83 (PR) Richmond 6, 30, 47, 51, 63, 79, 94 (PR) St Kilda 24, 43, 59, 75, 90, 103, 111 (PR) Sydney Swans 21, 40, 57, 73, 101 (PR) West Coast Eagles 4, 26, 29, 62 (FS), 78 (PR), 84 (PR), 93 (PR) Western Bulldogs 22 (FS), 41 (FS), 74, 88, 89, 102 (PR), 110 (PR) Glossary: * - More info on Gold Coast FC compensation picks FS = Father-son (more info) PR = Promoted rookie SP = Scholarship promotion Bold = traded picks
Kermit is a frog
Roar Pro
Middie - and you're free to discuss said match on theRoar, but, I'd've though not on this thread/tab.
Joel
Guest
Oh, it's all part of the next media deal is it? You can link me up with that then, I'd be interested to know more. Is that 30,000 TV ratings, surely not? That's only about 2/3rds of 1% of the population. You never brought up soccer? Who are you kidding? Look up, you're a soccer proselytizer posting irrelevant soccer junk in an article that has nothing to do with soccer. Don't run away, this is fun.