World Footy News

Recently there has been a turnover of staff at national level in Canada and I talked to AFL Canada's new president and continuing Calgary Kangaroos president Lachlan Griffiths.  
 

It may seem an obvious statement but football needs people. Not just players, coaches, staff and helpers but people who bring their particular expertise into the football environment. The person who can ring around and find an available sporting facility at a reasonable price is a valuable asset.

Lachlan is an accountant and has endeavoured to set the league and the clubs on a sound financial footing. He has studied various institutions, not just football entities to extract inspiration for the right financial model.

 

The future of Australian Football is now increasingly focused on junior programs. Against the odds individuals have established some programs in a number of countries. The North Delta program has been running successfully for some years now and Lachlan has used that knowledge gained to establish programs in Calgary.

Calgary is in partnership with "Kidzfirst" which is a program where kids pay to try or be involved with five major sports - Australian Football, not only being one choice but a very popular choice. From that program, two junior teams have been created with more being considered, the obstacles being the number of educators and availability of uniforms. In 2016, Calgary has added KidSport. To keep pace with junior development programs in schools, Calgary educates the school P.E. staff to compliment their own during school hours and approximately 60 teachers are now conversant with Australian Football.  

Umpires are crucial. Not just to umpire games but to educate newcomers. The first step is to get players to umpire and educate. The next step is to accredit umpires to to produce more umpires. AFL Canada now has three assessors, one responsible for each of Ontario, Alberta and Quebec provinces to increase umpires numbers.

Calgary has designs on it's own full sized oval but at the moment the costs are prohibitive because it involves remediation of an established baseball diamond.
 

Like many clubs Calgary works with the Irish community in joint competitive games but unlike most clubs they don't indulge in International Rules rather preferring to play the Gaels in reciprocal games of AFL and GAA. There is a lot a of sense in that approach with games contributing to both established football codes and with Australian Football gaining some new recruits.

Currently the composition of the three team Calgary league is approximately 50%  expat Australian. They have approximately 100 senior men and women players not including juniors. The Bears, Cowboys and Wolves select players in a draft to keep action competitive as possible. As we speak, Banff is in the process of creating a team which could join the Calgary league.

The Kangaroos are the combined team that represents Calgary. They Interact with Edmonton thrice by tournment and also participate in the Kelowna Tournament, a large event on the football calendar. They also compete in the USAFL nationals despite not playing any American teams. To qualify for the USAFL nationals you must gain points by playing away games and hosting games with other clubs (outside of your league).

Some time ago WFN canvassed a development survey from overseas football clubs. With respect to indoor football the effectiveness in North Amerca was seen differently to that in Scandanavia. The reason can be explained by the different costings which can reach for example, $200 per hour in Calgary. Despite this Lachlan sees indoor football as integral to development.

Currently Roger's TV in Toronto shows three games of football of the Ontario league. Lachlan had Shaw show the Calgary Grand Final in 2015 and is hopeful of getting more games shown in 2016. AFL is shown on TSN2. Two games per week and the grand final. However they are shown inconveniently live, which because of time difference does little to promote the game. Lachlan is trying to both increase the coverage and change to user friendly delayed coverage for wider appeal. Unlike Australia, AFL fans don't have to worry about spoiler alerts.

Discussion then turned more general, with Lachlan fielding questions, sometimes out of left field, with ease and always appreciating the intent. For example, the criteria for government support (if available) varies significantly between countries in both form and amount. North America has to rely on good business sense as the bar is set very high. Calgary has an innovative form of funding best described as charity proceeds-sharing.

As to the future, Banff is well under way and there could be a surprise development in Saskatchewan. AFL Canada seems to be on the right path.