World Footy News

Danish Footy took a bit of a hit when Denmark surprisingly pulled out of the 2005 IC, but the latest developments indicate that DAFL is getting its act together - with a rejuvenated leadership corps, a juniors tour to Australia in April and more internationals including Denmark and Sweden in the works.

This report courtesy of Ian Hill.

Since the controversial decision to regionalize at the end of the 2002 season, the Danish Australian Football League has endured a few tumultuous years. The legacy of the infamous “split” gets more and more confused as the seasons roll on. Ironically, what cannot be denied is that it not only saved footy in Scania (Skåne in Swedish), but has more or less defined it. Its legacy in Denmark is decidedly more muddled.

The specific reasons why would require a much more detailed article. However, since the split, the club in Århus (Denmark’s second largest city) has almost disintegrated, Aalborg has established a two team environment which if nothing else has attracted more players, Farum has established its own local league, and as of 2006, DAFL has for the first time lost a founder club with the Amager Tigers announcing that they will not participate in any competition this year.

The once feared Tigers, who still hold a multitude of DAFL records including most premierships (six), have indicated that the club has not folded, but that they wish to take a year off to rebuild. In the fragile environment that is Aussie Rules internationally, it will be interesting to see if the club ever re-surfaces.

The simplest and most optimistic observation that can be drawn from all this is that DAFL is going through a transitional phase. The high times that resulted from the initial appearance of the sport and the novelty value are clearly over. Denmark is a small country (5.4 million people) with a miniscule expatriate Australian population when compared to the likes of similar countries with elderly leagues (Canada and Great Britain). The result is that the teams that were established in 1990 for the basic purpose of having a competition may start being replaced by teams in other locations that wish to grow the sport through the next phase.

The bad times came to a head last year when Denmark was unable to send a team to Melbourne for the 2005 International Cup. This was a shock to a league which as recently as 2001 could have staked a claim to being the best Aussie Rules nation outside Australia.

A significant problem has been the league’s constant inability to find office bearers. In 2002, DAFL’s executive changed from a four-man commission to a two-man body supported by a board consisting of a representative from each club. This was not working and the feeling was that it was because likely candidates were put off by the prospect of being left with all the work. For 2006, the league has gone back to the four-man commission and has instantly found itself a committee and a president. The only irony is that the Danish Australian Football League is now being led by an Englishman living in Sweden (Mark White).

Individual player numbers have remained stable, if not actually increased, but the league has had trouble settling into the right structure to accommodate them. Local leagues have been implemented in some areas as a means of blooding new players and easing veterans into retirement in a more social environment without exposing them to the rigours of full-on footy. The obvious result of that is that DAFL’s Premier League competition now has only five teams in it. On the bright side, both Farum and South Sweden very nearly entered two teams each in the Premier League this year and will almost certainly do so in 2007, bringing the number back up to at least seven.

It has taken a long time but the junior situation finally looks like extending beyond the Farum base. Slagslunde, a tiny village 12 kilometres west of Farum has its own team moving into its second season, and South Sweden now has kids playing and the result may very well be a four team league across the Øresund in the 10-13 year age group. It could be argued that Farum’s junior program and the impact it has had on the club’s senior team has indirectly been one of the catalysts for the demise of the Amager Tigers, but that is hardly a reason not to develop juniors.

In April, the Farum Cats junior team will conduct its third tour of Australia (also 2000 and 2003). The team will play four games in Melbourne and Geelong including the little league game at half time of the Western Bulldogs v Geelong match at Telstra Dome on April 22.

Plans are also in place for a high-school based junior competition. Involving mainly 16-17 year old students, this promises the return of instant players for a club’s senior team, and as such, all DAFL clubs have expressed an interest in this endeavour. This is an interesting development considering Denmark in general has no concept of inter-school sporting competition.

At the 2006 AGM, Jim Campion, the man behind Farum’s junior program, was put in charge of the Danish National squad with a view to the 2008 International Cup. Campion’s mantra for the Vikings will see a few changes, namely the emphasis on youth, skills, active participation in DAFL events beyond the simple act of playing, and most significantly that fund-raising for the trip must start immediately. Following on from the enormous success of the drawn international between Denmark and Sweden in 2005, DAFL hopes that the national teams of Denmark, Sweden and Germany will take part in a three-way competition of full internationals across the 2006 season, giving each country one home and one away international for the year.

The 2006 season has also already seen the re-introduction of a newsletter. The technology of the internet with websites and email tends to over-shadow the impact that a printed newsletter can have in creating interest and generating PR. DAFL had its popular “Ugeavis” (“Weekly Newspaper” in Danish) from 1994 to 1997 but since then has relied on its website for dispensing information to the masses. The first edition of Nordic Footy News, a monthly publication aimed at covering footy not only in Denmark but in Sweden and Germany as well, was recently published and can be downloaded from DAFL’s website here.

On field there will be less change than there has been since the split. Jutland’s local league will maintain the same three teams. The Copenhagen local league will be discontinued but it is likely that the North Copenhagen Barracudas will enter a team in the North Zealand (Farum) local league, which remains otherwise unchanged.

There are big changes in Scania which is enjoying a boom in interest. The local league will now be a four-team affair with the dominant Port Malmö Maulers, who have won all three Scania local league premierships, having done the right thing and split into two teams, Malmö Dockers and GV Malmö Satyrs – the GV standing for Goulburn Valley, whose football league has sponsored the Satyrs with jumpers. Scania have also introduced its own regional competition, which will more or less feature the same player base restructured into three larger teams. The purpose of this competition is to retain the Port Malmö Maulers name, allow Gothernburg to play a limited number of games, and to establish a new team in Landskrona. The intention in 2007 is to consolidate these teams in to one local league of six or seven teams which will support two DAFL Premier League teams.

As DAFL enters its 16th competitive season, those running it are hopeful that the bad times are behind them, and that the next few years can be devoted to sending two teams (Denmark and Sweden) to the 2008 International Cup, and make good the name that was tarnished by Denmark’s late withdrawal from last year’s event.