World Footy News

In a significant publicity boost for Australian Football in the UK, Scotland's major national newspaper The Herald recently ran a full back page spread on work by the SARFL to grow the game. The article gave a good background to the game and talked about the dedicated Glasgow ground, Victoria Park, the push into schools and a program to give troubled youth employment experience at the BBC and law firm McGrigors. The article featured a detailed interview with the SARFL's Eddie McAvinchey. It explained that the 29-year-old (who was pictured in the story), originally from Armagh, is "at the vanguard of a disparate collection of individuals comprising the Scottish Australian Rules Football League, a four-team division begun by two Australian expatriates in 2003". McAvinchey was delighted with the amount of coverage given to the sport, although a little embarrassed that the author focused so much on himself. The article should lift the profile of the game amongst the locals and be a boost to the credibility of their junior program. As for McAvinchey, congratulations to him for getting the SARFL front-and-centre of the sports section. A small price to pay are the friendly jibes that have already started from his team-mates and work-mates about his media attention - the perils of the job Eddie!

The full article is Richard Winton meets a man using Aussie Rules to help society.