World Footy News

The Bristol Dockers will be playing in the Welsh Australian Rules Football League in 2011, after the WARFL committee last weekend voted unanimously to admit them to the league.

The Dockers are one of England's oldest clubs outside London, starting as the Bristol Bears in the old BARFL back in 1991. For the past few seasons, they have competed in the AFL London Social Division, but after the 2010 season were keen to move to the 9-a-side format and play locally.

Jason Bryant from the Dockers says that "there were a few reasons we moved away from the London Social league, firstly the London league didn't inform us in any discussions about the 2011 season so when we contacted them, everything had already been decided and unable to join. This was the same case for the Southern League. We were told by AFL GB heads that the only option left to play in 2011 was the Welsh league as they hadn't decided their competition schedule."

"The Dockers were very keen to enter the Southern league for the 9-a-side competition due to a number of team mates heading back to Australia, and the Dockers were more likely to fill a 9-a-side team than 18-a-side. Secondly, the travel became an issue for the London teams as we did not have one London team travel down to Bristol all season, with us gaining points on forfeits."

"We attended all games down in London but found the London teams unwilling to travel, likewise when we made the semi final, we had 3 games back to back, week after week in London, with no team willing to travel or compromise to come down to Bristol," Bryant says.

The Dockers will become the second club from England's West Country to play in Wales, with the now-defunct Swindon Devils playing the 2007 season against the then newly-formed Welsh clubs.

Playing in the WARFL will mean less travel overall for the Dockers, with the longest road trip to Swansea less than 100km, however Bristol's closest neighbours the Chippenham Redbacks will be in the English Southern Division, as would be the proposed new club in Bath. "It's interesting, we have very little contact with the Bath team as they are our closest competitors, but Chippenham are always up for a friendly game."

"We have had a few encounters with the Welsh league teams in the previous year's preseason competition in Southampton. The standard of footy was very good and quite competitive, so it was another reason to give these guys a look in."

The Dockers have a core team of nine players, with a few new recruits and some help from their sister GAA club the Western Gaels bringing that number up to about 15 players, which Bryant hopes they will gain on this year.

Anyone wanting to know more about Australian rules football in Bristol can contact the Dockers via their Facebook group.