World Footy News

The Carlton versus Fremantle exhibition match in Pretoria on February 2nd will be no quiet run at an empty park. The game forms the centre-piece for a major campaign to raise awareness of Australian Football in the area and will see thousands of young players bussed in to see the game, live coverage on South African cable TV, and a curtain raiser in which all four of South Africa's footy provinces will be represented for the first time. worldfootynews.com speaks to AFL South Africa's Joel Kelly.

Some exhibition matches aren’t taken too seriously, and while it’s true that neither Fremantle nor Carlton are likely to field anywhere near their best squads, the match promises to be a special event nevertheless. And the standard of football will still be far superior to any seen in Pretoria before.

It's easy to question whether the game will serve much purpose in promoting footy in South Africa - who will attend such a match? And do the AFL players really mean anything to the game's latest converts? Absolutely according to AFL South Africa staff.

AFLSA’s Operations Manager Joel Kelly told us, "Getting exposure to the game at the highest level is an enormous boost for the code in South Africa - it is all well and good to teach the skills at grass roots but until young South Africans see the game played in the flesh, it will always be hard to establish that unbridled excitement that we readily associate with AFL - for the local FootyWild kids to see their heroes in the townships through the AFL community camps that Fremantle and Carlton will run in the North West and Gauteng respectively, then for those same kids to actually see them play live, is an incredible opportunity that we, as Australians, would probably take for granted - these kids will not and we are genuinely excited about what the AFL club visits will do for the code in South Africa in the longer term".

The exhibition will take place at SuperSport Park in Pretoria, a very new region for footy, and a long trip from footy's original South African province of North West. But Kelly doesn't expect that to mean it will be played in an empty stadium, nor that the FootyWild children will miss out - staff have been working hard to leverage this match in many ways and are hopeful of up to 8000 spectators, which would be an excellent outcome for a new sport.

Kelly talks more about the integrated promotional effort, "South African cable channel SuperSport 2 will be broadcasting the game live on February 2, AFL South Africa, AusAID and the AFL clubs are endeavouring to bring up to 3000 FootyWild participants along to the game from both the North West province (likely Fremantle supporters given their adoption of that region) and Gauteng (likely Carlton supporters) and there is a dedicated marketing campaign aimed at university students and township parents in particular".

"Tickets are being sold to the general public. FootyWild participants are receiving transport and tickets as a direct benefit of formal registration in the FootyWild program, township supporters including FootyWild parents and university students are being offered subsidised transport and ticketing packages to the game".

Not only will the kids get to see AFL stars in action, but they'll also see home-grown players representing their country, with a youth side playing an Australian Indigenous under 16s squad. The Africans will be coached by AFLSA's head coach and former International Cup star, Mtutuzeli Hlomela, who will be assisted by former Geelong and North Melbourne champ Leigh Colbert.

Kelly explained the selection of the South African side, "The AFLSA team to play the curtain raiser features 6 new development players chosen from the December talent camp with (Essendon player) Adam Ramanaskaus plus a further 18 players from current stocks - players will range in age from 15 to 23 years. There is a core group of 12 players that will then travel with the indigenous youth team to Durban (in KwaZulu-Natal) and then Capetown, picking up 12 township locals in each city to play for South Africa for the very first time. These teams will be much younger in age with these games being viewed as purely developmental opportunities". And as a sign of AFLSA's commitment to making Australian Football a truly national sport, all four of the focus provinces will be represented for the first time.

Clearly this is no small exercise and represents the most comprehensive, fully integrated attempt to introduce Australian Football to another country. The footy world will be watching with interest.