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The FIFA World Cup is upon us again, and I have to fess up that every time it comes around, I get a twee bit envious.
I mean, Soccer’s a great game, alright, but imagine if it was Aussies Rules over in Brazil? Imagine if Aussie Rules was the world game and every four years the code’s best 32 countries converged with their take on it?
It’d be a wonderful melting pot, wouldn’t it? 32 nations bringing their exotica and spices; 32 nations bringing new horizons for footy just as they do for Soccer.
Alas, that’s all fanciful, isn’t it? as our game is unlikely to grow to that degree. Indeed, it’d be a triumph for Aussie rules to even become a minority sport overseas, as opposed to one that is played here and there by ex-pats.
That granted, what if there was then an alternate way to make it international? What if there was a left-field way for Aussie Rules to instantly win hearts and minds of patriotic sports fans all over the globe? Well, crazily enough, I venture there is.
Today, just as it’s always been, Australian Rules is played by a great many multi-cultural types. Even just a cursory glance of AFL lists reveals surnames with lineages to over a dozen nationalities.
My team, Footscray, has a multitude: there’s the Germanic Dahlhaus, the East European Hrovat and the North European Johannisen. From the British Isles, there’s the Irish Murphy, the Scottish McCrae and the Welsh Jones. And what about all the Italians: Giansiracusa, Bontompelli, Liberatore, Talia and Crameri. Further, there would be ancestries to other nationalities on players’ mothers side, as there would also be from grandparents. Just in this microcosm, we can see that AFL footballers have ancestral links to more than just our colonial settlers.
Why not tap into this heritage to market the game? Why not have an Aussie Rules World Cup every four years pooling players from their county of origin?
An eight team knock-out tournament played from mid-October in the year of the World Cup, with teams named Anglo-Australians, Italian-Australians, Greek-Australians, Irish-Australians, Scottish-Australians, German-Australians, Croatian-Australians and most tantalisingly, Indigenous-Australians.
These teams seem the most likely to me, as these nationalities are the most predominant in the AFL. But I expect, like the Big Bash, there would be a tender process to form the franchises, and should a consortium want to form a team for a nationality I’ve not covered, they would be given an opportunity to outbid the likelier ones.
Anyway, imagine it: an Aussie Rules World Cup!
The thing that really leaps out at me is that overseas countries would instantaneously invest emotion in our game. Picture an Italian sports nut, for instance. He’s channel surfing through a myriad of cable channels when he stumbles upon an Aussie Rules game with Italian flags in the stands.
The game is a knock-out semi-final of the 2018 Aussie Rules World Cup and Tom Liberatore from the Italian-Australians has just lain a bone-crunching tackle on Luke Dalhaus from the German-Australians. The ball spills out to Stuart Crameri and he slams through a long bomb from 50 out. Lygon street erupts behind the goal, as does half of Freemantle in the stands, and a maelstrom of Italian and Australian flags are frenetically unleashed by the formation’s cheer squad.
Did Australian Rules just win over an Italian patriot or did it not?
Further, how much more would the overseas TV rights be worth after an event like this? Up to now, the overseas rights have brought in peanuts, but with a product like this, we could approach countries represented in the tournament with real clout. Should the tournament then go on to be a success, and Aussie Rules converts countless patriots, would that then translate in higher rights for the regular season? Gee, you’d expect so, wouldn’t you?
On the formation of the teams, as I touched upon earlier, I see it working like the Big Bash. The AFL would field tenders from consortiums looking to form teams. The eight highest bidders would then win licenses and would go on to recruit players based on there ancestry. As the majority of players have mixed backgrounds, you’d think it would be best left to them to decide which way their hearts lie.
As for player contracts with AFL clubs, contracts would be drawn up so that players are released from their clubs in this window every four years. Hardly a disruption, particularly given the tournament would take place in late October.
Further on the formation of the teams, so as to adapt to an ever changing multi-cultural society, I see the tender process taking place for each tournament. This would allow consortiums which missed out on forming teams for the previous tournament a chance to outbid rivals. On the other hand, maybe we allow as many teams as consortiums want and have multiple divisions with promotions and relegations?
Lastly, on the formation of teams, I suggest one requisite: there has to be an Indigenous-Australian team! No out-bidding here. Lance Franklin, Chad Wingard, Cyril Rioli etc representing our first Australians? Wow. It’d have to have more going for it than the Indigenous All-Star game, and how incredible would the game against the Anglo-Australians be?
As a Slovenian-Australian myself, and one with German ancestry as well, I would love nothing more than to express my European background at one of these games. I see myself being as immersed in the action as much as I am watching my Dogs. And on the teams being named in this hybrid way, I can’t think of anything more symmetrical.
For me, a proud Slovenian-Australian, my heart belongs to two countries. To have them both represented as one team seems like a perfect synthesis of my and Australia’s multiculturalism.
I just pray that Gary Ablett can somehow trace his ancestry back to my Dad’s home town Ljubljana!
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