AFL club Sydney sign US basketballer

Cat They have sent 16 yo's to play almost 20 yo's all the way across the across the ditch where the code is less than a novelty. Are you saying there are no 20 year olds of the right stature, right here in Oz to be found? Give me a break. The bonus playing here in Oz, would be that they can actually v those who know how to play the game, unlike NZers. You are clearly grasping at straws here, in pushing the Kiwi cause. Most of the bigger athletes in NZ, pop of a mere 5 mill tops, are gravitating to the established codes i.e. League and Union anyway. Any NZ talk is clearly a PR exercise of cynical commercial proportions, which could well stand to disenfranchise those very worthy demographics i.e. ours in Canberra if taken to the next level. I am rightly disappointed that so many Australians on this forum, would ignorantly forgo their support of domestic markets to satisfy some international reverse cringe by endorsing any expansion to NZ in favour of their own.

Republican The game has changed from when you and I might have played it. Think about this: John Nicholls (Big Nick), premiership captain-coach with Carlton, early 70s, famous ruckman, yet he was only 189 cm, the exact same height as Chris Judd, an elite midfielder today with the same club. Ted Whitten was a key position player, and a few centremetres shorter. These days your ruckmen are generally 12+ cm taller than Big Nick, and your key position players are at leat 8 cm taller than Whitten, and they are expected to be more athletic, more agile, faster, etc, etc. That's the new standard - but finding these blokes ain't easy. Remember what the Qld recruiting officer said to Zac Smith's dad: there are only a few 17 year olds in all of Australia who are 200cm tall AND can pick up the ball below their knees. By necessity - we have to look for them elsewhere - we really do need them.

Cat There are plenty of bigger stronger athletes avaialable for them to be pitted against right here!

It's quite interesting looking through those photos again, you can really see the difference in body sizes between the 16 yo Australians and the 18-19 yo NZers, who also look quite strong in the air. Clearly there must be differences in pace, using the footy and general footy nous, and judging by the last quarter, the AIS team was able to run the game out much, much better. Nevertheless, it shows that there is something to work with, a decent base, that can only be helped by more games like this.

Interesting on the ground perspectives, thanks. Here are some pics on the recent AIS-AFL U17s playing the NZ U20s: http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20120131113001619 Once again, you can see the big bodies of the NZ boys, so with some ongoing refinement, we will definitely see some NZ born and raised boys making it to the AFL - boys have learned the game in NZ - that's a major achievement. And incredibly - it's the NZ boys who are wearing the fair dinkum aussie rules jumpers!

A large amount of funding for AFL KiwiKick is directly from community organisations such as Sport New Zealand and 17 Regional Sports Trusts around the country. These community organisations are seeing the benefits of a new sport that promotes fundamental skills of kick, catch, pass and bounce. The kids love playing the sport particularly with an emphasis on having fun. The parents are responding to an organised sport providing a good experience for their kids. Some major organisations and the community are seeing value in their involvement with AFL. If the sport continues to provide good experiences then there will be continued growth. Great to see the continued debate Republican. If I can get tickets to the first AFL fixture to be played in New Zealand next year, I'll send some too you and you'll owe me a beer.

Feel free to start a petition and get some signatures if you think this is so insulting to footy devotees around the country ......... my bet is, you will really struggle to get any, i dont know anyone who would be insulted by this !.

The Swans are indeed fortunate to have the likes of Basil Sellars as a big fan, he funds plenty of these sorts of things for Sydney, would not be suprised if he funded this. BTW he played basketball for SA, owned the Newcastle Basketball team at one stage, contributes plenty to the Swans, and funds plenty of cricket scholarships as well.

mate Im not picking on you for your position regarding NZ. Im not fussed one way or another, and it seems Hawthorn is funding it out of their bank account anyway and who really likes the hawks anyway....

Republican I disagree. The are 16-17 year old kids, who get a chance to travel, and they are playing against blokes who are bigger and stronger than them, it's a great experience for them.

The Swans are always keen for a draft back door bargain. Good luck to them if this works out, I've been happily following Mike Pyke and hope that Pyke has an injury free run this year. Hopefully Starling can be a Swan too.

Cat You contradict yourself. Where is the benefit for our players, i.e playing NZ at a game they have absolutely diddly interest or pedigree in with those sorts of cricket scores as you seem to be suggesting? Conversely, NZ would never entertain the futile exercise of sending an academy All Black Union side to humiliate some country of insignificant to non existent pedigree for that said code. I do worry, because the answer should be bleeding obvious to all and sundry; the ONLY agenda on the part of the AFL and those of your persuasion perhaps, is to engineer a commercial opening which will see the next generic AFL side plonked in Wellington or Auckland, despite them having no cred in respect of our code, even less than any you care to mention around the globe. NZ's pedigree and cultural affinity for our game is akin to Mars and it is only due to their geographic advantage that they continue to glean favour across the Oz sporting board in this respect - and at the expense of potential domestic regions i.e. the ACT. Wookie, I make no apologies for my NZ focus. The fact is NZ have been gifted league memberships in competing Australian codes at the expense of domestic demographics for years and it is a moot point indeed as to their sustainability, if your criteria is simply a commercial one. These have been in codes that require/d significant Australian input from the ground up in order to appear viable long term, so in respect of our indigenous code, the notion defies belief. Despite the Wayne Shwass's, Sheedy's and Kennetts of the game, this cannot be allowed to transpire in our game and while you may critisise my somewhat obsessive crusade against NZ, this should be viewed in context and in proportion to the growing sentiment throughout this country and indeed on sites i.e these, that NZ are somehow worthy candidates to being a viable market for any off shore elite expansion. As I keep saying, this sentiment is insulting to so many footy devotees around the country and as if it hasn't been hard enough for them to endure and resign themselves for the good of the code in respect of GC and GWS trumping true heartlands i.e. Tassie and the ACT, now we have to grin and bear this insidious hard sell of NZ - this really is beyond the pale of acceptance to my mind.

Its almost like he has a radar for anything AFL related that mentions New Zealand. Rarely see him comment otherwise.

Republican clearly, for the 16 to 17 year old AIS team to defeat 18 to 19 year olds in the NZ team by 91 points shows that NZ players are well, well short of the mark, noting that many of the AIS squad will ultimately be drafted - but it's still a very good hit out for the AIS squad because they are playing against bigger bodies and the NZ boys are certainly quite big. I also note in the link stabpass provided that NZ got walloped by 230 points by Qld in the country championships - so you have nothing to worry about for the moment. But I can't see what's wrong with helping them develop some more? All understand it will always be a minority sport, that's fine - the world is chock block full of minority sports, in fact, 90+% of the worlds sports are, by definition, minority sports.

http://www.nzafl.co.nz/RepresentativeTeams/TheNewZealandFalcons/AustralianCountryChampsAug2006/tabid/121/Default.aspx All i could find, results were somewhat predictable, divi 2 would be a good fit for them. ACT from memory has won the country champs a few times in Divi 1.

You're probably right on the 20,000 number, it's quite a large number (considering the context). I didn't know NZ had played in the country championships - how did they go?

20K are playing regularly? Lets qualify regularly. Footy is played competitively in every ACT govy school yet we continue to bang our heads against the proverbial to be taken seriously by the AFL. You would swear there is more interest in NZ based on this sort of hyperbole than there is in demographics i.e. ours This HANZUP programme is a token PE addition to the NZ sporting curriculum thats all. I certainly don't see any evidence that the venture is producing elite AFL stocks for the Hawthorn since its inception. PNG is a far better proposition to my mind as far as recruiting potential athletes to our game that may exist off shore. In Australia you would find similar novelty disciplines i.e. HANZUP, integral to the PE national programme that have no bearing whatsoever on the actual sporting culture of the nation. Our code ranks extremely low on the Kiwi sporting ladder and consciousness, so to suggests otherwise can only be commercially driven, often by loose canons i.e. WS and Sheedy. Hawthorn fans are now quite dirty on WS and his clubs push into Hobart especially since the Roos are doing it gratis. Where will this leave Hawthorn I wonder, surely not NZ, who WS has ambiguously suggested has Tassies footy credentials? What an insult to our footy heartlands by this influential AFL spokes person, to draw this sort of analogy in pushing the Kiwi barrow for expansion. The NZ 'Hawks' were predominately 20 yrs and over in age while a good number joined the squad with Australian footy pedigree, thanks to a very loose criteria around Kiwi heritage. Our young fellas easily accounted for them by almost 100 points! The likes of Cat are all too ready to jump on the global band wagon in talking up this NZ push, while the fact remains that the few NZers who have taken to our code grew up in Australia. It should also be remembered that the early exaggerated links to the code in that country were almost without exception patronised by ex pat Aussies and not NZ'ers. NZ is an irresponsible focus of our resources while the governing bodies total commercial obsession to do with criteria to expansion is dangerously disenfranchising to demographics domestically, where footy is integral to the DNA. GWS is at least integral to our culture and based on that alone, is far more likely to succeed ( with much help from Canberra) than NZ ever will.

Interesting, as when NZ played in the Australasian champs way back in 1904/8 they played against the other Australian states, NZ also put a team into the Australian football country champs a couple of years ago, but also against other states. FWIW, i thnk its possible that 20,000 kids have been exposed to AF through schools visits, and Hawthorns Hanz up program, but i doubt very much that 20,000 kids are playing reguarly.

The AIS-AFL Academy (U17s) defeated the NZ Hawks (U20s) yesterday by 91 points, in what was the first time that the two countries had played each other at Australian Football at any level. http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/128298/default.aspx Kurt Heatherly, an 18yo 191cm international scholarship holder with Hawthorn was voted the best player for NZ. If you look at the video clip, it's an interview with Wayne Schwass, former NM and Swans player, who is also NZ born, and the clip mentions that there are 20,000 Australian Football juniors in Auckland alone.

On this subject, Hawthorn has just signed their 4th NZer on an international scholarship. All 4 are aged 16 and 17 and have represented NZ and the South Pacific U17s. All four will turn out for the NZ U20s when they play the AIS-AFL team this afternoon. The latest signing is Ben Miller, 17 years old, grew up on rugby, is described as having good foot skills and speed. The other three are Shem Tatupu (16), Kurt Heatherley (17) and Rhys Panui-Leth (17) . Tatupu is 193cm and growing, and is the son of former Kiwi rugby league international Tony Tatupu When you hear that a bloke like this is only 16 years old, and is 193 cm tall, and already playing for the NZ U20s team, then you can understand why Hawthorn has shown so much interest in him. Heatherley is a former junior basketball rep player and was discovered by Hawthorn when he was only 15 - he too has good height and good athleticism and the Hawks have even speculated that he could turn out for them as early as next season. Hawthorn fund a junior development program in NZ called HANZUP, and are clearly starting to get some return for their investment.