World Footy News

Geelong College are the first Aussie school to embrace Australian Football's journey into Africa. The school currently has a large party of high school students on tour in South Africa, playing football and netball against local sides and assisting with coaching clinics. This could be the start of an exciting new phase for international footy, since many schools conduct overseas trips to places like South Africa that provide tremendous cultural experiences, but now the schools can include the great Australian game as well.

Angelo Lekkas, who played 180 games with Hawthorn in the AFL from 1996 - 2005, is a multicultural officer with the AFL and is also on the trip. The college party totals 30 to 40 students from Years 10, 11 and 12, and involves both Aussie Rules and netball, another traditional sport in Australia which already has a much longer history in South Africa. The school departed Melbourne on June 23rd and were due to be welcomed by AFL South Africa the next day at their offices at the North West Cricket Stadium, Sedgars Park. Over the following 11 days the students will help conduct several footy and netball clinics, visit cultural sites and learn about the history of the Rainbow Nation. They'll travel to Potchefstroom, Johannesburg including Soweto, Rustenburg, Pilansberg National Park, Sun City (a famous water and entertainment park), Mafikeng, Vryburg and Cape Town. Much of the tour follows in the footsteps of the successful Convicts and AFL youth tours there of recent years, though with the netballers often going to separate clinics this is the most ambitious tour logistically to date. They return to Australia on July 6th.

The Geelong College footy side will play three tour matches, against teams representing three of the four regions within North West Province, which will be fielding teams with players roughly 15 to 20 years old.

AFL Southern Regional Team on June 27th at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom
AFL Central Regional Team on July 1st at International School in Mafikeng
AFL Bobhirima Regional Team on July 2nd at Vryburg High School

The visit should provide a good lead in to the commentment of the FootyWild program, which although already launched, gets properly underway in term 3 (August) of the 2007 South African school year. With the 10 development officer positions now filled (see AFL South Africa seeking 10 paid community development officers), AFL South Africa's Joel Kelly has confirmed that the target is 4000 kids participating by the end of the year, and 16,000 from ages 8 to 13 at the conclusion of 2009, with an additional 9000 players outside of the FootyWild program, giving them 25,000 in total. That's exciting numbers for fans of international Australian Football.

For more South African footy news visit the AFL South Africa website.