World Footy News

The Falun Diggers will join the Stockholm region Australian Football Federation in 2011, bringing the number of sides in the league to five, the other four being based in the Stockholm metropolitan area.

Falun Diggers founder and former Sweden Elks coach Cameron Crooks says the move has already given new impetus to the team in the lead up to the 2011 summer season, after 2010 saw them only able to play 3 friendly matches. "The numbers were dropping rapidly last year, due to the fact we were not in a league and just playing practice games. The boys were not getting motivated to play, so being accepted in the Stockholm league has giving us a new lease of life," Crooks says.

Falun's location in the Dalarna area 2.5 hours drive north of Stockholm has made it hard for the club to get regular matches in the past. Besides the SAFF clubs, the Karlstad Eagles are only a few hours to the south-west, but the Eagles currently have a league with Oslo and Gothenburg, both of which are around 6 hours drive from Falun.

"The amazing thing is that Falun is a town of only 55,000, and to get an Australian football club up and running in a full-on compitition is just fantastic. For the first 2 years I was the only Australian playing for the club, now we do have two other Aussies now playing with us. One has played AFL only once before, and the other lives in Leksand which is about 80km north from Falun."

"I do know of about 10 other Australians here, but either they are well past their playing time or they are just not into sports. So the resources of knowledgeable footy players are very very limited, but the love of the game is massive. Also the better part of being in a small town is that everyone knows most people, so our home games get between 50-80 spectators, depending on weather."

"Some of the boys have even adopted Australian football as their number one sport, even over ice hockey, so travelling to stockholm four times, plus twice more as we will have to play in the semi and grand final there, is no drama. The fixture will be five teams, we'll play each team home and away with 2 byes. With Stockholm only being two and a half hours away, we think it is not too big a burden, we would travel further if it meant we could hit and beat those Stockholm teams!"

There have also been attempts to create further clubs in the Dalarna area, with the Svärdsjö Crows playing a few practice games against the Diggers, but Crooks says this has not yet resulted in any lasting new club. "Even though they were good fun, as no Australians play in either side, the boys were not getting anything out of it like learning the game game from experienced players or enjoyment for premiership points, just bragging rights. I do not exclude Svärdsjö being a stand alone team in the near future, but for the time being our goal is to just make Falun as strong as possible."

"This year the boys would be asked to pay a higher membership to help fund all expenses such as travel and insurance, but our aim is to spend as little as money as possible so we can get our own designed jumpers for future years. We do have a few sponsers, like Pitchers sportsbar, building company Sol Gruvan Bygg and furniture company Backlund´s Möbler." The Diggers have also been in touch with a famous Swedish band (not ABBA), whose identity will be revealed once the club can hopefully confirm a merchandise deal.

Located between Falun and Stockholm is the university city of Uppsala, where a large number of Australian exchange students come to study each year. A footy team existed in Uppsala around 2007 and 2008, even playing some practice games, and three or four players from the city regularly come down to play with the Stockholm teams, but as yet there hasn't been a passionate local willing to take charge of getting a lasting Uppsala footy club off the ground.

With the inclusion of Falun, Uppsala would be a logical addition from the SAFF's point of view, with the league also targetting more Stockholm clubs in future, to join the current crop of Södermalm Blues, Solna Axemen, Årsta Swans and Bromma Vikings. The SAFF also hope to soon be playing on a new oval being currently under construction at Stockholm University on a field owned by the King of Sweden (Djurgården). Expected to be the biggest in Scandinavia if the plans come to fruition, the footy ground should be ready for 2012, possibly even later this year.