World Footy News

It has only taken two matches for the new boys of AFL Middle East, the Bahrain Blues, to join the winners list. They defeated last year’s Grand Finalists, the Muscat Magpies 12.14 (86) to 11.9 (75) in front of a home crowd.

It’s an impressive result for a club that was first proposed when Australian Association member, Tim Barrett suggested to Jim Carless that they, “pull together an AFL team to compete at the Dubai 9s tournament in April 2009.” As Carless says, “It’s one of those bar ideas that sounds great in theory, and sounds even more realistic as the night wears on.”

Barrett and Carless did manage to get a team together, and it had enough support to not only compete in the Dubai 9s, but to join AFL Middle East.

Since then the playing list has grown to over thirty, but with injuries and work commitments, it remains difficult to field a full squad on match day. The Blues also have a Bahraini National on their list, a young man by the name of Mohammed. Nicknamed “Go Mo Go”, he is keen to learn and is improving fast. Getting locals playing football has been a difficulty for most of the Middle Eastern clubs (Abu Dhabi has one local on their roster) so achieving this in season one is a definite achievement. Bahrain's team have diverse sporting backgrounds, with players from Rugby Union, Rugby League, soccer and Gaelic Football.

The club is managed administratively by Tim Barrett, Jim Carless and Dan Pilmore. On the pitch and the training paddock, they are lead by Stewart Beechey, Adam Trezsinski, Stewart Hunt and Dan Pilmore.

Astute readers will notice that of the seven Middle East AFL clubs, Bahrain is the only squad “technically” representing a country, rather than a city. This is due to Bahrain’s size. Quoting Carless, “Although it does have other towns, Manama is the only real city. Globally it’s known as Bahrain rather than Manama, and our home ground is at the Bahrain Rugby Club, which is Saar rather than Manama – sort of makes it hard to follow the Manama line.”

Like any football club, the Blues couldn't exist without sponsors, and Carless is quick to thank them. “Bahrain Duty Free is our main sponsor, and we wouldn’t be up and running if it had not been for Steve O’Connor and his team at BDF. Other support has come from the Bahrain Rugby Club, and the Australian Association of Bahrain.”

As for the rest of the year, the club’s main aim is ensuring, “that the players take to the sport, and that the people and establishments in Bahrain support the efforts to get this sport up and running.” They hope to get a small following in the country, which will then lead to junior coaching and school clinics.