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There has been a lot of discussion of the merits of the AFL’s expansion into Sydney’s west – rugby league’s heartland. Many have quoted participation rates, memberships and TV ratings as justification of their particular position.
Maybe we’re all looking at the wrong indicators. Looking recently at those statistics got me thinking to when I was a boy growing up in Manly playing Australian Rules.
The lighthearted and at times quite nasty criticism that I copped from followers of mainly rugby league but also rugby union made me at times question why I decided to play and why they were so against me playing.
Surprisingly, after a couple of years, those same kids played a couple of games for my school in the state knockout! So for me the real statistic that matters is when boys who come from a league or union background decide to play: deciding to play the game in spite of their peers and committing to playing in the hope that maybe one day they may get a career playing AFL.
We all know the story of Keiran Jack making that decision. But recently others like Brandon Jack, Jack Barrett and Ned Mortimer have done the same.
The pressure for those boys to play the same sport as their fathers and family must be enormous; how some must look at them at times with a sense of betrayal and confusion.
Yet their families all seem to give the same support, commitment and encouragement. It’s a lot to give up; the honor of playing for the same club as your father, representing your state and possibly your country.
Why do they do it? For me it’s the initiatives the AFL has put in place over the last decade.
The Auskick program, which puts a presence at grassroots level throughout Australia, the academies of both the Swans and GWS that give them the ability to learn at a higher level.
The AFL NSW scholarship program, which gives a kids a pathway into the AFL system, the rookie list, allows a player to learn and develop into an AFL player whilst in the AFL system, and lastly the work and endeavor of Jack and co that prove that it can be done.
Another reason maybe that both rugby codes have large numbers of players of Polynesian descent.
These boys generally are larger and have greater muscle mass at an earlier age, which makes it harder to compete in a sport where speed and endurance count less than brute power and strength.
With 18 positions on the field there are more positions for kids with the smaller body types to play a role.
Even if the defection of Folau and Hunt to Aussie Rules means more boys of Polynesian descent take up the game, we won’t see islander boys dominate the AFL draft like it has come to dominate both rugby codes’ recruitments, as it will always be a game that requires more than two body types.
In any event, although we have only heard of a few boys with rugby backgrounds making the switch and not enough to declare it a trend, it does lead us to ask is it the start of a trend.
Only time will tell but we are safe in the knowledge that the potential for growth in Sydney is there.
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