World Footy News

During the second International Cup, staged in Melbourne in August, World Footy News spoke with New Zealand AFL General Manager Rob Malone. Originally from Western Australia, where he played for West Perth in the WAFL (he also had a short stint at St Kilda), Malone has a professional background in football administration, including Football Manager at West Perth and General Manager at Claremont. During the train trip to Wangaratta we discussed the quality of the Kiwi team and the challenges facing the game. Their following game against Samoa confirmed for this author that Malone's rating of his squad was on the mark, as the Falcons demolished what was an otherwise competitive unit, before completing the tournament undefeated. Below is a transcript of the interview and a link to the audio, however the latter is relatively poor quality due to background noise levels on the train. We'll bring you further exciting news about NZ footy in the next few days.

Interview audio

WFN: So how are you finding the team travelling so far after what three games that have been pretty comfortable wins?

Malone: Yeah I mean we've obviously... the revised draw has been quite favourable Brett... obviously won well against Japan and Spain who are well minnows in terms of international AFL and the Great Britain game to start off with was competitive but obviously the team... the first game of the tournament, they got through that. We weren't brilliant but we did get through it and Samoa will be a good test tomorrow in Wangaratta.

WFN: Moving on to after the International Cup is all finished, development in New Zealand's been going very well with the juniors, we were talking before, can you repeat what you were saying before about the next step in getting some of the exposure at the school level into ongoing players.

Malone: Yeah it's a good question. Obviously we... this year and last year we had 15000 children primary, intermediate and secondary level throughout New Zealand, in the key areas been Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton. So we don't have an issue in terms of exposure within school time but the biggest issue that we face, that presents itself to New Zealand AFL is converting the school player into a regular out of school structured competition participant, and we've got some initiatives or views in terms of that conversion from the raw participation broad base of children to the out of school structured competition is the hardest issue moving forward.

WFN: In terms of the team that you've brought over you have a few guys that are 18, 19 years old, do you expect that those sorts of players... some of those guys that have been playing for a few years do you expect they'll form the core of your side in the coming years? Obviously some of your guys that are later-20s, have they been playing a long time themselves or are they new to the game as well?

Malone: Yeah I mean the oldest guy is 36 and he's represented New Zealand at five international tournaments and he's the most capped player. He's 36 and it goes all the way through to the youngest couple at 18. The average age of the squad is about, just on 25 years old Brett, which is slightly higher than we would have liked but obviously with a couple of old geriatrics blows the average out a bit but we'd expect that the majority of these guys would be around again, however we do have a national under 16s team and they'll be competing next July in Canberra in the Ron Barassi Tournament and we'd like to think that a number of those players will form the core of the players at the 2008 International Cup.

WFN: Are you finding that you are getting many Maori players coming through interested in the school programs?

Malone: Probably more so Polynesians and Pacific Islanders Brett. Obviously, a couple of issues, we get a lot of players in Aussie Rules in New Zealand because Aussie Rules is played as a summer sport from August through December. So we get a lot of Rugby players in their off season playing Aussie Rules to improve one their kicking game and two their general fitness because obviously the game requires a better aerobic base in Aussie Rules. So a lot of the Polynesian boys play it. We also get a lot of white boys, they're referred to as Pakeha in New Zealand, the white boys play because a 10 year old Polynesian boy could weigh 90 kilos, so the perception of the Aussie Rules game in New Zealand is that it's physical but it's not as physical as Rugby, so it's sort of somewhere between Rugby and soccer. So we get a lot of players playing because they enjoy that perceived lack of physical contact all the time, if that makes sense.

WFN: And so obviously football in New Zealand and internationally in general will get a lot more attention when a few draft picks start to make their way into the AFL. What sort of... do you have any sort of wishlist or time frame that you're hoping to see that sort of thing happening, have a New Zealander making it into the AFL?

Malone: Yeah look I mean 2006, the end of 2006 the current agreement with the AFL is up for renewal so in terms of our KPI's (key performance indicators) I mean obviously converting that school competitor is one huge issue, second issue is to become a little more self-sufficient in terms of our income. Our income is probably 90% the AFL grant at the moment and that pays wages and certain things but we need to obviously generate other income streams so we're not so reliant on the AFL income stream and the other one obviously is to get a number of New Zealand born players into AFL club systems. Perhaps not AFL but certainly with Box Hill or the VFL affiliates. I think that's something realistic. I think it'd be great to get a player in the with Collingwood or Essendon and in this tournament there might be a couple of guys that might get invitations to train but certainly being realistic I think the realistic view is for some of our players to attend pre-season training out at Box Hill and Coburg. I think that's a realistic goal and I think it could happen quicker than that.

WFN: Do you have a feel for what you think... what sort of level your best players would be at at this stage? It's always a hard thing to judge - they don't get the training of the clubs over here at the professional levels, but what sort of levels in the VAFA or whatever do you think your top players might be at?

Malone: Yeah look I've got a pretty strong view on this Brett, I actually think that this team that's trying to win the World Cup (sic), if they were together for a 22 week period I think they'd be competitive with an A-grade amateur team, um, definitely B-grade amateurs competiton in Adelaide, Melbourne and WA, collectively, and there's probably 5 to 6 players that could play regular senior amateur football in Australia and there's probably 1 or 2 that could play regular VFL football at senior level. Beyond that I'd probably see VFL Reserves or amateur reserves. I think if this team, as I said a 22 week period if you had them they could be a pretty competitive A-grade amateur team.

WFN: That's a big call but obviously you're in the best position to judge that so it will be interesting to see how you go in the next few games as well and hopefully we might see you at the MCG on the big stage and see how the team goes after they've had what 5 games under their belt together and the Maffra game as well. Thanks for the interview.

Malone: Thanks Brett.