World Footy News

For a lot of people the measure of Australian Football is a focus on the highest level of competition available, however, in my opinion, the real strength of any sport is its depth of  grassroots participation. Outside of Australia, only a few organizations have managed to broach junior participations unassisted. One of the success stories is the North Delta Junior AFL.

 

Readers of WFN would be aware of earlier stories of how Mike McFarlane suggested to a group of boys playing soccer that they might like to try a game of Australian Football which ultimately lead to the formation of the NDJAFL. Not only has the NDJFL endured but it has expanded and celebrated its 10th anniversary this season. This is a huge achievement for not only a new sport but especially for one as country specific as Australian Football.

 

Mike McFarlane has been on the ground floor since day one and has seen the NDJAFL grow every year. He states, “We now do clinics in 90% of all the elementary schools in North Delta and hope to reach 100% this season. We have expanded into Ladner, Tsawwassen, Surrey and Richmond and are now getting calls from schools who have heard about out program instead of us searching them out.” Thinking about the future he continues, “We are also developing our players into coaches and they are now starting to handle some of our clinics which will give us someone to continue the league after we get too old!”

 

Typical of the thinking required to grasp all available opportunities the NDJFL participated in National Sports Day Canada for the first time this year. Mike explains, “It’s an across country celebration of sport to get both children and adults active and involved in sporting activities. 

All sports in each city are invited to showcase their sport with information booths and sport demonstrations. We had a booth with league and sport information, along with videos of our junior league playing. We also set up and a handball target to allow people to try their hand at one of the unique skills of footy. A number of junior coaches were available to demonstrate kicking and handballing to willing participants. While the turnout was not what the organizer had hoped for, we had good numbers stop by to check us out and I feel we will gain a couple of both junior and senior players out of this experience.”

 

Patience and persistence has seen slow but steady growth with junior numbers for the NDJAFL at around 120 members for the 2012 season. The Delta is also following the fast growing trend of more women playing Australian Football.

 

 Mike says, “Our women’s league numbers are growing steadily. We had 2 teams of consistently 12 players for each this past season. The numbers of girls and women interested in footy is where we have seen our biggest growth. It seems that Canadian women/girls love footy and we hope to add another team this season. We hope to see the men’s teams follow the Ontario model and develop a women’s team as part of their club.”

 

Onto the season ending highlight, the AFL Grand Final and I was interested to gain some insight into how this year’s game in particular was received by Canadians.

 

Mike McFarlane recounts. “For the last 6 years we have hosted a Grand Final night party so that our juniors and their parents can see this great game played at the highest level and to see how important this game of footy is to the Australian people. We’d like them to see that it has the same status in the Australian sporting community as hockey does for us Canadians. This year and we have the Sydney Swans who sport the Canadian national colours of red and white and possess a born and raised Canadian as a team member. Having Mike Pyke playing, who happens to be from our province of BC, was definitely an added bonus.

 

During the Grand Final I could hear people commenting as they recognized Mike Pyke and how well he was doing. Watching the gripping 4th quarter when the Canadian was required to step up and indeed when he excelled - was a really proud moment for all of us at the party, as was seeing him draped in the Canadian flag afterwards.“   And also, “For myself, watching my cousin Bob Skilton bring the AFL cup onto the field and then present it to the Swans was an added thrill for my family and I.”

 

 

The impact of this game is summed up by Mike McFarlane as he states, ”We now hope that this will open some eyes to the fact that the AFL can look a little further than just the USA as a recruiting ground for future AFL players. We all feel that this is a prime opportunity for both the Swans and the AFL to promote this great game using Mike Pyke as the model of which athletes from North America can aspire to!”