World Footy News

As if growing a new sport in a developing nation wasn't difficult enough, 2006 saw the Tonga Australian Football Association have a run of misfortune that impeded several of their major projects. Incidents such as the passing of members of the Royal family and civil unrest prevented an adults league from progressing and ultimately saw the cancellation of all sport in the Kingdom. However a lot of ground work was laid for programs ranging from youngsters through to the seniors, as well as obtaining AFL affiliation. Tonga's AYAD Development Officer Michael Russell is looking forward to a big 2007, including the commencement of fundraising with an eye on the 2008 International Cup.

On July 7th, Prince Tuipelehake and his wife, Princess Kaimana were killed in a car accident in the USA. A one-week mourning period followed in which organised sport was not permitted, causing TAFA to stop the "Skipjacks" junior program and training for the national team. Then King Taufa ‘ahau Tupou IV passed away on the 9th of September. The mourning period as a mark of respect for the king was one month. As is noted in the TAFA annual report "organised sport was not permitted and the Skipjacks program, along with the training of the national squad had to be stopped. The running of the TAFA Youth High School tournament was also impeded by the mourning period, and did not take place in 2006".

Tonga is a true kingdom without a democratic system as per many countries, and civil unrest was widely known to be likely following the passing of the king, with protesters agitating for change. Pleasingly TAFA, although focusing on juniors, had enough men interested in Aussie Rules to encourage them to launch a senior competition in 2006. November 16th was to see the series begin, but sadly the riots began and all but one match was cancelled. Again, from the annual report "Restrictions placed on public gatherings enforced by the Tongan military prevented the competition from recommencing in the weeks that followed. It was then advised by the Tongan Amateur Sports Association that all organised sport should not take place until 2007". For all the trials and tribulations faced by people trying to develop Aussie Rules around the world, riots and military restrictions is happily an impediment not often faced!

On the upside, outside of these restrictions, juniors programs were run for several age groups, an Australian amateur side toured, the men's program gained momentum and the football relationship with Samoa was further explored. Here's a snapshot:

- The TAFA website was re-launched: visit www.tafa.to

- The 2006 TAFA scholarship winner, Alex, had a very successful time in Adelaide, South Australia, culminating in winning his club's best and fairest award. Visit his blog here and see him featured on Fox Sports in this video

- Skipjacks, their primary school development program will have 12 participating schools in 2007, up from 6 last year, an estimated rise of 400 participants at junior level. They also have juniors participating in Aussie Rules outside of school hours.

- Big Eyes is the High school development program which is aimed at both boys and girls at junior and senior level. The program is designed to feed into a high school/schoolboys competition. The main issue is fitting into the school timetable, competing with athletics, rugby and soccer.

- Seniors are to be restarted after the unfortunate political events in 2006, with an influx of men interested in playing, with Michael Russell suspecting it may be thanks to the Fitzroy Reds tour (see Fitzroy Reds tour to Tonga) and/or AFL matches being seen on the pay TV Australia Network.

- International competition is being explored against Samoa, working with Mick Roberts (VIDA Aussie Rules representative, see Samoan footy back on track).

- The International Cup 2008 is a distinct possibility, with TAFA aiming to send a team and have just appointed a fundraising committee (made up mainly of players) to raise funds to get there.

- TAFA is hopeful the Fitzroy Reds will return to again take on the senior national side.

- AFL affiliation was recently obtained.

- TAFA is finalising the logistics of a 2007 scholarship with the Fitzoy Reds. It is hoped, but not yet confirmed, that Lotu Pangi, a 23 year old Tongan, will soon travel to Melbourne to play with the Reds, undertake work experience at a footy club and complete a level 1 coaching course.

- They recently stablished relations with two new stakeholders; the Tonga National Youth Congress (TNYC) and Tonga Health Promotions Unit. TNYC will be running a life skills program for players, which includes training in life issues faced by Tongan youth and teaches them aspects such as future thinking and career planning. TNYC will also work with TAFA to implement an English Language mentoring program, that will help further develop the English of Tongan youth in order to increase opportunities both overseas and in Tonga. The Health Promo Unit are involved with the Skipjacks program (primary schools) and are hoping to use it as a tool to promote healthy living amongst primary school children. TAFA will also be involved in the Ma Alahi project which aims to create healthier lifestyles amongst high schools.

- Set up the first Aussie Rules committee in Vava'u, the most northerly outer island group of Tonga, and got the support of the ministry of education in Vava'u to have Aussie Rules included in the primary school curriculum. The committee hope to get a senior competition up and running, as there is a significant gap between the conclusion and beginning of the rugby seasons.

- Michael Russell also has hopes for some other big projects, but has asked us to sit on those details until officially confirmed.

Of course amongst all this positive news there are always going to be risk factors. The major problems likely to face TAFA, assuming civil unrest does not flare again, are the costs involved in attending the International Cup, general funding and maintaining programs once Russell completes his time in Tonga later this year (this will require the local TAFA officials to take over,particularly if another AusAID placement isn't secured). Let's hope those issues can be successfully dealt with and all the exciting programs reach their full potential.

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