World Footy News

AFL Samoa development officer Michael Roberts sees big potential for Aussie Rules in Samoa, so much so that he believes it could easily become the second biggest sport on the islands. At the moment, there are school tournaments with around 3000 primary school students and 250 high school students to be held this year, a ten-team senior league and test matches against Tonga planned at both schoolboys' and senior level.

In fact, Roberts believes the game is growing too fast for their limited resources, saying "we could easily have another 15 highs schools and 20 primary schools on our books if we could only man such programs". With 6 AFL matches televised on Samoan TV each week he estimates around 60,000 of the national population of 200,000 people will have been exposed to Aussie Rules by the end of 2007, with the only thing holding back increased expansion being a lack of funds.

Originally from the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Roberts has worked in a number of development positions within the sport of Australian Rules. These have included working for the AFL in the rugby-dominated state of NSW, as well as the Southern Stingrays, an elite under 18s team which have produced a number of AFL stars and in the process he has worked with some of the most influential people in the AFL business. He says "I have come to Samoa to continue my football journey in the hope of testing my abilities and to prove that despite never playing at the top level I have the abilities to grow our great game and to teach, coach and promote the game in a rugby-dominated and difficult marketplace".

Since arriving in Samoa, he has been hard at work with the rest of the organisation in modernising and formalising their structures, including creating a partnership with the Samoan ministry of health, boosting the profile of footy on TV, forging links with the national University and developing a strong working relationship with the Tongan Aussie Rules scene. The AFL Samoa has also started an AFL IT scheme, whereby PCs from schools in Australia are donated to needy schools in Samoa and there is the beginnings of an "Aussies on the Road" program similar to that in South Africa where travelling Australians in Samoa can assist in umpiring or holding clinics.

The AFL Samoa now has an almost fully Samoan committee of management, and a strong presence on the island of Upolo, where Samoa's capital Apia and two-third of the national population is situated, but due to a lack of available resources has not yet been able to expand onto the larger island of Savaii. According to Roberts "Rugby is by far the dominant sport here but I see a change that could mean Australian Football could become the second sport of Samoa to be played out of rugby season. If our budget was larger we could put lights up at Aussie Rules fields and play games at night to avoid the heat and to attract crowds and players without competing against rugby. Also we could employ locals to run clinics whilst a volunteer or full time administrator was in charge of promoting the game. AFL could easily be a national sport here if a full-time paid person was to be stationed here for a five year period".

The costs involved in travelling to Australia has gotten in the way of more international opportunities for Pacific island footy sides. A proposal between Tonga and Samoa has been drawn up to alleviate these expenses by having a bi-annual cup where all countries from the Pacific are invited to attend. The first of these is proposed for October 2007 in Samoa, with a similar cup to be held in Melbourne as a lead up to each International Cup. Note that this is just a proposal at this stage.

Roberts says "I am working closely with Michael Russell from Tonga to make this a reality that will create tourism in Pacific countries and also make it more affordable to travel and increase awareness of the sport outside Australia. Hopefully this will be complemented by touring schoolboy teams from each country as the AFL begin to streamline programs and approaches across the board or employ people to assist the game in the pacific.

"It is definitely our aim to attend the International Cup in 2008 and we are currently fundraising for the event. This is a very difficult process for a developing nation - most Samoans earn about $1 Australian dollar an hour and the cost per person to travel to oz is around $4000 per person including flights, accommodation, travel, food and sightseeing. Despite this difficulty we are striving to get a team across for the cup and are looking at Australian sponsors and the ability to access Samoan boys from around Australia and New Zealand who can come to Melbourne to represent the team. This is not ideal for us as we would love to send a team from Samoa only. However with $5000 Australian from the AFL each year it is simply not enough to run our in-country programs let alone assist with overseas travel.

"If the AFL chose to trial the promotion of the code as done in NSW and Queensland to promote the game in Samoa it would take less than two years to achieve all goals. Perhaps within my role I can do my part to develop successful programs that will in time demand AFL attention and funding.

"My time here ends in June 2008 and I am hoping that we may be able to get a new volunteer several months before then to overlap our assignments and so that person does not start from scratch like I had to. An overlap would assist greatly in the understanding and transition from local conditions and create more sustainable and consistent programs for the future of our organisation".