World Footy News

As the snow starts to fall along St. Catherine's Street, the Montréal-based Québec Saints Australian Football Club are packing away their jumpers and footy boots after a very promising first year.

With players from Québec City, Montréal and Laval making the long journey to Toronto to play in the OAFL, some driving as much as 9 hours one way to have a kick, a group of expat Australians from Montréal formed the "Québec Saints" in early 2008 in order to have a more accessible way to play Aussie Rules.

As word grew about an Aussie Rules team in Québec numbers increased quickly to the point shortly after its conception the Saints were ready to play their first match.

Thanks to Luke Anderson for this report.

With the help from Ontario Football League clubs Toronto Central Blues and Ottawa Swans in June 2008 the Saints played the Central Blues Reserves team in an exhibition game, to be played in Ottawa as a curtain raiser to the Swans v Blues senior match.

With limited preparation and a group of French-Canadians who hadn’t quite worked out all the rules, the Saints, managed to pull off a victory, to everyone’s surprise including their own. Québec officially now had its own Aussie Rules team.

The Saints would tackle the Broadview Hawks Reserves team a month later in Ottawa, but the biggest problem confronting the team was the distance that needed to be travelled in order to play an organized game, so shortly after the Hawks game plans were made to launch a second team in the Montréal area and create a domestic league where players could ‘have a kick’ without travelling huge distances.

On October 4th, with the arrival of the Laval Bombers, Montréal hosted its first Aussie Rules match under the banner of the ECAFL (Eastern Canada Australian Football League). A huge success, a fixture is being organized for 2009 to play at least 4 ECAFL matches and the wheels are currently in motion to add a team from Québec City in the near future and include an Eastern Ontario team into the fold.

The Saints are also currently negotiating an agreement with the Ottawa Swans Football Club from the OAFL to represent them as their reserves team for 2009, a partnership that will guarantee a strong foothold for Aussie Rules in the Eastern Canada region.

2008 was a busy and exciting first year but with growing interest and the creation of the ECAFL 2009 looks to be even better.