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Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Monday, February 02 2009 @ 05:31 pm ACDT
Contributed by: Aaron Richard
Views: 4,467

Europe

Sweden's Karlstad Dragons and Queensland's Noosa Tigers have teamed up to start the first player exchange program for an individual Swedish footy club.

While a few Swedes also played footy in Australia via a partnership between Powerhouse FC and the DAFL, the first Swede from a northern club to travel down under to hone his footballing skills under this agreement will be Mattias Ewald, who will arrive in Queensland in early February. Ewald's journey has created some interest in the local press, with the Värmlands Folkblad and online version of the Nya Wermlands-Tidningen both publishing articles in the past few days.

The Noosa Tigers, based on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane, play in the AFL Queensland state league. The AFLQ has grown in recent years to be the strongest league in the northern "rugby states", with a number of former AFL players playing or coaching.

The exchange was organised by former Dragons coach Kevin Anderson while visiting relatives last year, and supported by his company Maloo Inc.

Mattias will become the third Scandinavian we know of currently visiting down under for a kick of the footy, with Nicolai Secher and Chris Campion from the Denmark Vikings' IC08 squad currently in Geelong playing with the Thomson FC for 2009.

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Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Niels Schønnemann
on Tuesday, February 03 2009 @ 09:34 am ACDT

"The first Swede to travel down under to hone his footballing skills" - Hmm. I think Joachim Aulin, Henrik Norén and Roger Nilsson will be unhappy not be considered Swedes who have honed their skills down under.

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, February 03 2009 @ 09:51 am ACDT

Yes just reading it now I suspected that might not be quite right - the Powerhouse scholarships organised by the DAFL would have had both Danish and Swedish players head Down Under wouldn't they? Were all those guys you named from the Scania league (southern Sweden)? I'll amend the story.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, February 03 2009 @ 10:11 am ACDT

Of course we can't correct all the other stories out there reporting him as the first Swede (which is what this article was based on). We actually see this kind of thing all the time - just about every day I read something about international footy and I think um, no not quite right. Sometimes deliberate misinformation but often just that people don't remember or don't know all the things that have happened before.

The main thing is it's good to see yet another international player getting some good exposure in Australia. It seems like Sweden continues to be a real growth area for footy. Could it be that it will go past Denmark in a few years in terms of player numbers or even in terms of the Elks versus the Vikings?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Niels Schønnemann
on Tuesday, February 03 2009 @ 11:16 pm ACDT

Im sure the Vikings and Elks matches will become far closer in the years to come.
I´d suspect that Sweden might even have more players or at least the same number of players as Denmark has now. The Swedish players are just not quite as developed. But the numbers are certainly there to be the 2nd or 3rd most footy-populous country in Europe.
How many actual footy players are there in Ireland? 300?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, February 04 2009 @ 02:55 pm ACDT

I suspect it would be generous to say Ireland had 150 regular players in 2008. Lot's of plans for 2009 which will hopefully work out, but in 2008 basically 5 teams playing less than 18-a-side I think. So yes, seems like Sweden could well be close to or already the second biggest in Europe in terms of player numbers.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Jörg Pareigis
on Wednesday, February 04 2009 @ 05:21 pm ACDT

Certainly, Mattias is not the first Swede going to Oz on an exchange, but he is still the first player between a Swedish and Australian Club exchange....
Anyway, I agree with you guys that we have a great momentum here in Sweden and I am sure it is here to stay. We still need to work on more junior footy programs to reach the skill level of the Danes, but eventually we will get there.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Troy Thompson
on Friday, February 06 2009 @ 07:59 am ACDT

Aussie Rules Swedish Style - some local Aussie press from the Sunshine Coast Daily Online.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Eurofooty
on Friday, February 06 2009 @ 08:16 am ACDT

Footy in Sweden has gone from 30 active players and one club in 2003 to approaching 400 players and 15 clubs in 2009. Much of this growth can be attributed to the 9-a-side game which makes it simpler to grow new teams and expand into new areas rapidly.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Karlstad and Noosa team up for first Swedish footy exchange

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Tuesday, February 03 2009 @ 05:03 pm ACDT

I accept full responsibility for that mistake... I completely forgot about the DAFL-Powerhouse exchange when I wrote the article.

Considering I also met Roger when he was here with Powerhouse I should have noted that.

I'll amend the article right now.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN