World Footy News

The Victoria Lions football club started 2007's AFL Canada season with expectations of getting the side going again. Things started relatively well, with planning starting in late January or thereabouts, moving on to things like recruitment and fundraising. The first training brought out around six people, with numbers peaking at 12 in late April. After that, attendance petered off to the starting six, then less, then the same four people in different combinations for a few months, then nothing. Basically, people lost interest all over again and it began to be quite clear that this season hadn’t worked out either. Why? There’s quite a lot to it really, most of the problems are the same ones facing other Canadian amateur sports.

Besides the cross-town rivalries in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, the farthest most Canadian sides travel regularly to compete is around an hour, with only two doing that most of the time. Only in rare cases will teams go further, for example, the two sides in Vancouver and the two in Calgary will combine resources several times a year and travel to the other province for a tournament, with both travelling to Kelowna, which is roughly halfway for a tournament in May.

In Ontario, the new Ottawa Swans got two visitors, but unfortunately both games were lopsided, defeating the Central Blues 16.15.111 to 6.1.37. They were on the other end of an even more lopsided game losing to the Northwind side 24.24.168 to 0.1.1. The new London side, also a bit of distance away, never managed to take the field. For Victoria, the problem of playing an away game involving a ferry trip somewhere and a home game involving a ferry trip for someone else acted as a further barrier, as the possibility of being stuck on the wrong side for the night exists. The best option would likely be trying for metro footy in Victoria, or another side in Nanaimo, which is a city of roughly 75,000 around 2 hours by car up the island.

If the ferry to Vancouver is a turn-off for people, crossing the US border is another one entirely. Simply put, the look I got from a Homeland Security Officer in Port Angeles speaks volumes, the expression saying "you’re here to play what?" I was only allowed through because I remembered the name and street of the field we were playing at. Canadian authorities are equally sceptical. Carloads of young Canadians going to play a sport no one’s ever heard of aren’t likely to fare better, as a border guard had a hard time believing me and two friends were travelling to watch minor league baseball (he ended up taking my keys to search the trunk). If crossing the border is a hassle for Canadians, then it is a near-nightmare for Australians, who get photos and fingerprints taken. For those who don’t have their visas sorted out, the possibility of being denied entry back into Canada and ending up back in Australia is very real.

Besides Canada specific issues, the typical problems were prevalent as well. People simply lost interest, because there was little besides training we could do with twelve people and ocean between us and anyone to play. Players seemed to disappear from the face of the earth. For example, an Australian rode past our training on his bike, got our info, showed up at the next week’s run where he told us he’d played in the BARFL and then never came back. While those of us running the club could have put in more work, the interest almost certainly would have come back to earth, leaving us without a side. Add to that that our supply of Australians compared to somewhere like Vancouver, which is a truly international city is limited and there aren’t many people willing to help run the club.

Still, even though we never played a game, we did manage to do a few interesting things. There were a few beers after training, we did have an interesting group while it lasted and we also had two players from Jutland of the Danish AFL, Eske Petersen and Daniel Nielsen, who were travelling through the area and wanted to stop by for a kick. Between the four of us, two Canadians and two Danes, we managed to kick for about an hour and a half. You could tell it had been a while for them, but the skills soon shone through. The conversation was soon about the difference between our two leagues, how Aalborg was driving for hours to play and it wasn’t working out, so they shifted to a local league as well as the Danish one.

Between me having played in various places in western North America, the other Canadian, “Gutsy” Corwin having many seasons of Ontario AFL with Guelph under his belt and the two Danes having played all over their country, there was quite a bit of experience, all international. The Danes told me about starting Footy and admitted to being a bit thrown off by the shape of the ball, while for most Canadian players, kicking isn’t something most do a lot of. For me personally, the biggest obstacle was breaking down the mental barrier about kicking the ball to an open man instead of trying to run out of would be tacklers with it, which is what “football” means to most around here. In the end, I would say that with around the same number of games, the Danes were just noticeably better. Looking at the composition of their league compared to ours, it may be because of the fewer Australians in Denmark compared to Canada.

Unfortunately, this season was my last for a while, with me being on the move for the bulk of the ’08 season. Still, I hope to settle down in Edmonton soon enough and with a footy centre not too far away in Calgary (thankfully there is no ocean or border between the two) I’ll be kicking again soon enough.