World Footy News

Much has happened in the South Island of NZ with Aussie Rules over the past few months. Funnily enough, Aussie Rules had just about dwindled away to nothing in Canterbury in the mid 90’s. Previous to that they had a competitive competition centered in Christchurch, but by the mid 90’s they were often down to playing 6-a-side games, with young kids involved, just to get a kick for the die-hards.

In late 1997, with an invitation to the WAFL from a keen Canterbury committee, I took a team down from Wellington to Picton, the beautiful ferry port at the top end of the South Island, and reignited the Wellington/Canterbury Provincial rivalry which had been dormant for about 8 seasons.

Things have changed greatly in just over a decade since.

The Canterbury competition now boasts a stable 4 team competition, with three teams Christchurch-based and the fourth from Ashburton, a large farming town about an hour south of Christchurch. This competition has a dominant team, Eastern Blues, who three-peated this season, winning the Premiership convincingly from the University Cougars. This is little surprise as the Blues are home to former Frankston (VFL) player and NZ Falcons Assistant Coach in 2008 Justin Davies and International Cup stalwarts in Geoff Thomas, Richard Bradley and James Bowden.

After this year's International Cup, Ashburton’s Sam Whitehead headed off to the UK to take up a Rhodes Scholarship. This is nothing uncommon for Aussie Rules in NZ as 1997 Captain at the Arafura Games Thomas Rutledge and his teammate Matt Stevens all went to England as Rhodes Scholars. In an interesting twist Sam caught up with AFL’s best known Rhodes Scholar Mike Fitzpatrick while in Melbourne for the IC.

In great news for the expansion of the game Wellington’s Nathan Rose finally found the support to turn dreams into action by forming the Otago Riot, a nickname based on the fact that Dunedin is a University town famed for the shenanigans that are part and parcel of this, who played the Canterbury Cobras (the CAFL Rep team) in a Provincial challenge. This has happened spasmodically in the past decade but has usually been driven by Aussies who have been in Dunedin for work. It will be interesting to see if the seeds have now been sown to build capacity to create a sustainable culture of footy in the great town or whether once again it will be a once off.

Finally the NZAFL Head Office should be commended for taking footy to the people with the U20 Championships headed for Christchurch in the New Year. This competition, with a variety of junior age limits in the past, is moved around the country on an annual basis. With the International Rookie List now a reality for the AFL and with the Clubs obviously keen to look internationally for talent with Irish, Fijians and a Canadian all listed this year, there will undoubtedly be interest in the best of the underage NZ footballers from the AFL talent scouts.