The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

Australian rules is breaking the ice in Finland

Roar Guru
10th November, 2013
20

For this instalment of the series on Australian Rules football around the world, I spoke to Janne Hokkonen, the President of the Finland AFL.

Hokkonen first got involved in Aussie Rules when he was looking for a hobby in 2009. He says it was an accident, when a family friend introduced him to the game.

He started playing kick to kick in the park with a small group of guys, and within the month was playing in his first game. He’s spent most of the time in the backline, but has played all over except ruck due to his short stature.

Hokkonen is the President of the FAFL board, which takes responsibility for the organisation of the national team, including its practice matches, as well as the the national league grand final and the pre-season competition.

He says that the league has taken some forward strides since it started, but that it can be difficult to branch out – and to get people to watch games.

The FAFL consists of four teams, with plans to branch out to two other towns in the country, but those teams are not yet competing in the league. Distance can be a problem, with one of the teams located a six-hour drive from its nearest side.

Hokkonen hopes for two or three more teams in the FAFL and a good regional league in the future.

The league consists of about 100 players, around 25 of those from Australia, with two of the four teams almost completely stocked by guys from Finland and the other two teams are around 50/50.

Advertisement

The league plays a variant of nine a side, with three players in the forward line, three on the ball, three in the backline and six on the bench.

The field used is the typical European football field. There can be difficulties booking fields because clubs sometimes confuse the game with rugby union and are concerned that players may ruin the pitches.

Teams play 10 games in the Finnish summer if they make finals in the FAFL league competition. They also play a number of games in the FAFL Cup pre-season competition.

While presently the FAFL cup consists only of Finnish sides, there are plans to try to expand that to national leagues close to them, like Sweden.

There is the beginnings of a junior program in Finland, where one of the coaches had a young son who was of the age to begin Australian footy and began a junior program to accommodate that.

The Finnish national team was originally called the Lions, but are now known as the Icebreakers. The name change was a necessity, says Hokkonen, because of the number of national sides already known as the Lions.

At the recent Euro Cup, Finland finished sixth. They couldn’t get the player numbers to go to the European Championships due to a somewhat unique reason – mandatory national service.

Advertisement

Hokkonen tells me that plans are afoot for the Icebreakers to come to the Australian Football International Cup in 2014 – having only competed once before – and expects the team to be a lot stronger than it was in the past, as its players get more experienced in the game.

There are a small number of Finish players living in Australia who will make the Finnish side at the IC in 2014.

Read all of the series covering how other countries are involved in AFL
Australian football in Fiji
The way of the Samurai – Australian football in Japan
Oh Canada! Australian football in the far far north
Frenchmen playing Australian football
Knights in shining armour – Croatia
Rise of the Black Eagle – Germany’s AFL connection
More to footy in the Emerald Isle than International Rules

close