World Footy News

The newest team in the AFL Middle East stable off talent enjoyed one of the most remarkable maiden seasons in any league for the 2014/15 season. To play their first game in the pre-season cup in October 2014 and go on to be grand finalists in March 2015 shows an incredible performance in just five months.

It is not the first such occurrence. Just last year the Raiwaqa Bulldogs in Fiji entered their first ever senior team and swept to premiership glory Fairy Tales do happen - Raiwaqa Bulldogs win AFL Fiji 2014 premiership, but this team had existed as an Under 16 junior team prior to that glory. The BM Bulls came from nowhere, almost.

Club President, Andrew Campbell, was involved from day one and was happy to share the story of the Bulls’ rise – as much for storytelling as it is a blueprint for development and success that other clubs may be able to replicate.
“In late July 2014 John Ferguson (Brookfield Multiplex - Chairman Middle East) called me and said that he thought it was time we started an Aussie rules football team. Considering the companies increased workbook over the past few years we had slowly accumulated a good group of guys at Brookfield Multiplex who could kick a footy, half of which were rugby players at heart though.”

“The first step was to contact the league and ask permission to join the comp. I ended up having a meeting with Matt Burn to tell him what we were about and our intentions. He put this forward to the other teams and it was thought of as a positive for the growth of the league.”

“We arranged the first training session down at Safa Park and had a core group of about 6 guys who came every week. For the first month it was a matter of finding lights and a patch of grass so that we could do lanework. Once we had our sponsors on board and some cash flowing into the club we started training out at Sports City which took it to the next level and got people more interested. Slowly the team grew to around 14 fully committed players.”

“September was a mad rush as we designed uniforms (thanks to Dawson Sports) and waited for the delivery which turned up just a few days before the pre-season cup at the end of October. We went into the pre-season cup not knowing what to expect, apart from one or two 15minute practice matches at training we hadn’t played a proper game. We ended up overcoming Doha, Abu Dhabi and the Dingoes to make it into the pre-season cup final on the same day. This was a great result and gave the boys an injection of confidence and motivation to attached the home and away season seriously.”

“Our first game was against the Doha Kangaroos which was scheduled to be our home game in Dubai. To assist Doha with limiting their travel we offered to play an away game and travel to Doha. Although this was a great bonding exercise for the team a few key players couldn’t travel and we were overrun in the end meaning we started the season 0 – 1. Next up we have the Abu Dhabi Falcons in Dubai. Although we were far from hitting our straps we managed to pull everything together and had a solid win which again sparked some enthusiasm around the club.”

“Our next game, and the final one for the home & away season turned out to be the most important, heading neck and neck on the ladder we needed to beat the Dingoes by 50+ points to make up the percentage and secure a position in the GF. The 4 weeks leading up to the Dingoes was the best we had – things seemed to click, everyone was on board and we were training the house down. We went into the Dingoes game with a clearer game plan and made it our number one focus to get out of the blocks firing. Results spoke for themselves and we were through to the GF.”

“Grand Final - you know the story. From our side we were extremely proud as a team to make it that far in our first season. Disappointing result but we are using it as inspiration for next season with the wheels already in motion for the 2015/16 season.”

The BM Bulls have set the bar very high, and their immediate challenge would appear to be proving that 2014/15 was no fluke. There appears to be plenty of evidence, however, to suggest that the Bulls are going to be around as a power for a long time yet, and we will watch their future development with great interest.






Every picture tells a story - BM Bulls 2014







BM Bulls 2015