World Footy News

Australian Football has a long and proud history in New Zealand, so much so that the game was officially called 'Australasian Football' from the 1880s through to the start of World War I.

The economic downturn of the 1890s forced thousands of Australians to cross the Tasman in search of work. Their number included several ex VFA and VFL footballers who played in NZ professionally. The migration helped the game in NZ to boom and the number of teams grew to 44 in 1893 and 115 in 1901.

In 1908 the New Zealand team competed in the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival with games played at the MCG. They defeated New South Wales and Queensland, and lost to Victoria and Tasmania to finish fourth out of the seven competing teams.

After a 40 year hiatus Australian football was revived in the 1970s with competitions established in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

New Zealand competed in the inaugural 1995 International Australian Football Championships in Darwin, losing the grand final to Papua New Guinea. This result was repeated in 1997 and 1999.

In November 1997 the AFL entered into a three-year licence agreement with New Zealand AFL to develop the game in New Zealand by implementing the NZAFL Development Plan. The plan included a range of football development programs and aimed to lift the profile of the AFL and the game in New Zealand by securing television coverage and assisting with the staging of high profile AFL matches in New Zealand. The AFL's investment in this program was $100,000 per annum over a three-year period.

The major objectives of the NZAFL Development Plan are to:

* Establish Australian Football in the New Zealand school sports curriculum at primary, intermediate and secondary level.
* Provide players at junior level with an opportunity to compete in Australian Football competitions at school and club level in the major cities of New Zealand.
* Strengthen open age competitions by encouraging junior players to participate in senior club football.
* Establish Australian Football as a recognised and accepted television and spectator sport in New Zealand.
* Establish New Zealand as a territory from which potential AFL footballers may be recruited.

As part of the strategy to develop the game in New Zealand the AFL scheduled an Ansett Australia Cup match in Wellington. In March 1998 Melbourne defeated Sydney before an enthusiastic crowd of 8,000 at the Basin Reserve. Further matches were played in Wellington in 2000 (Western Bulldogs v. Hawthorn) and 2001 (Brisbane v. Adelaide).

A New Zealand Under 21 team toured Australia in July 2001, winning two out of its five matches.

After a long history and sporadic growth, all the elements are now in place to allow Australian Football to grow steadily and at times quickly in New Zealand. By the year 2008, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the game, New Zealand could well be an integral part of the Australian game, as well part of the burgeoning international scene.