World Footy News

In October 08 the Western Bulldogs became the first AFL club to make use of the International Scholarship List, which allows clubs to effectively quarantine young international talent by signing them to $1000 per year contracts. This gives the club the opportunity to develop the player overseas (or for $20k they can look to move them to Australia).

The two young men are Inoke Ratu and Solomoni Loki, both from Fiji and recruited during a scouting mission by the Western Bulldogs that included well publicised local trials in Labassa (on Vanua Levu) and Suva (on Viti Levu, the Main Island). Several articles have appeared about the potential players, and worldfootynews.com also spoke with the Bulldogs about their plans as well as getting some thoughts on Fiji's footy future from the AFL Oceania Development Manager.

The following story includes material from Fiona Austen.

The AFL already features players of Fijian or recent Fijian decent in David Rodan and Alipate Carlisle at Port Adelaide and Nicholas Naitanui (who ended up going to West Coast at pick 2). There are now the two scholarship players and AFL Oceania Development Manager Andrew Cadzow has told worldfootynews.com that Fiji could be a participant at the next International Cup.

As previously seen in Bulldogs scouring Fiji for raw talent, the slick recruiting campaign by the Bulldogs saw hundreds of hopefuls turn up for the trial days, despite horrible weather and Rugby Union being the dominant code.

An in-depth look at the process of recruiting the two young men can be read in Dogs tap into Fijian talent on the Western Bulldogs' website.

Inoke Ratu is 19 years, an impressive 197 cm, and described as athletic, very competitive but raw. He lives in Suva, as does fellow scholarship holder Solomoni Loki, 16 years, 185 cm. He's described as raw but with a silky running style, great hands and an incredible aptitude for ball sport.

Bulldogs Development Coach Simon Dalrymple said "both boys showed good game sense and ball handling skills in the trial game held in wet conditions" and encouragingly that "They were familiar with the game, they'd seen it on TV, and they never played it but they knew who'd won the grand final. There is a bit of exposure over there" and "The publicity out of us signing these two boys will be enormous. We see that it will just get bigger and bigger".

So how wet was it? Often when players become champions and win awards such as the Brownlow Medal the media love to find background stories about how the player overcame great odds to be a success. If Inoke Ratu ever has such a breakthrough the Australian media won't have to look too hard for their story. According to Qauia swim changes Ratu’s life, Ratu had to swim across the Qauia River, at his uncle's insistence, just to get to the trial. "I wasn’t really interested. I said yes I’d try out but inside it was no. When the day of the actual trial came, I was at home in Qauia and it was raining really heavily. My mum was at a funeral and she kept calling me telling me to go, the Qauia Bridge flooded was my excuse not to go. But then one of my uncles forced me into the river and told me to swim across".

Hopefully Ratu's work ethic has become a little more self-motivated since the scholarship, and fortunately the Bulldogs do have people on the ground in Fiji to supervise. Another amusing feature of his story is something we've heard before from Oceania - that Aussie Rules is too soft. Many of the islands are accustomed to Rugby which has maintained its brutal tackling whereas the AFL has always had more aspects to the sport which has also been cleaned up a lot. There are some who are concerned that in fact by becoming "softer" the sport will go head to head with soccer rather than the Rugby codes, a war that it probably can't win. For now Ratu is happy to rise above his little brother's analysis. "Well he thinks it’s a girl’s game".

Red Dust, a non-profit organisation were in Suva with Bulldogs player Will Minson and club chaplin John Van Groningen assisting with the testing whilst also carrying out their duties for Red Dust assisting under privileged children in remote communities in Suva. The Bulldogs also wished to thank Shaun Bassett, saying that a project of this scale could not have been undertaken without his support, as well as thanks to Coca Cola Fiji for their generous support.

The Fiji recruiting comes after the solid performances in the 2008 International Cup by Nauru and Samoa as well as guest appearances by Tonga. According to the AFL Development Manager for AFL Oceania, Andrew Cadzow "we will promote and again openly help facilitate senior and youth football throughout the middle of Oceania. Especially between Samoa, Tonga, Nauru, Solomons and Fiji".

Note that a reference in one of the mainstream media articles to an Oceania section of the International Cup appears to have been a misunderstanding. But with talent lining up to try Australian football in Fiji and AFL Oceania looking to roll out programs, Cadzow has confirmed as reasonably likely that we will see a Fijian side at the next International Cup. Add the stellar performers PNG and New Zealand and a big contingent of Oceania countries is likely to compete next time.

With so many growing programs in the area we can reasonably hope progress to quicken across Oceania in the years to come. The signs are that the Bulldogs' recruits may be just the first trickle of an ocean of talent.

Solomoni Loki signs on, watched by Bulldogs recruiting manager Scott Clayton (left of photo) and development coach Simon Dalrymple.

Inoke Ratu shakes hands with Scott Clayton