World Footy News

With the 2011 International Cup approaching, the Dutch Australian Football Association is currently weighing up the pros and cons of sending the Flying Dutchmen on their first trek Down Under.

At the moment, it's looking likely they won't be at the IC until 2014, with Josh Carmichael from the DAFA saying that for a league at an early stage of footy development, the question remains whether the benefits of experience and exposure on the world stage outweigh the high costs of sending a team to Australia.

Josh Carmichael spoke to us about their plans for the Flying Dutchmen, and the pros and cons of mounting an IC campaign in 2011.

LEFT: The Dutch National Team at the 2010 Euro Cup in Parabiago, Italy. Photo courtesy of Daniela Scalia.

"At the end of last year, after the success of making back-back finals of the EU cup, I would have said we were a 80-100% chance to attend. However, having spoken to different parties, sponsors, clubs in Australia etc, at the moment it’s more like 20-30%."

"The main reason for the drop in probability is that we have spoken to other nations in Europe who attended the 2008 IC and we weren't so optimistic about the downside and costs of attending the tournament. In the worst case scenario, some nations spent 10,000s of Euros and months of energy to attend the tournament, and when they returned the domestic competition almost collapsed," Carmichael says.

"At present, for smaller nations (smaller by AFL participation rates, not population) who can barely scramble together the players, funds and resources to attend, there is no clear pay-off between attending the IC and benefits to the domestic competition as a whole. In most countries the IC attracts little media exposure and/or produces minimal new players to the game back home, and in some cases can even dent the motivation of those that attended, due to losing by 60+ points every game. To some nations it begs the question; what’s the point in attending an IC cup to improve your skills for 20 players, when there's maybe no competition to come back to?"

"Of course, we understand that most EU teams that competed in the 2008 IC say that the skill level of players that did attend drastically improved; and that alone was worth the trip to the IC. However, we feel that we can better use the minimal resources that we do have by building a more solid domestic comp which can produce 70-100 available players (men and women) to form a competitive team (or teams) at the IC 2014; rather than attending this year's IC with only 20 available players."

The Netherlands has four domestic clubs, based in Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Eindhoven, with the local competition only having kicked off in 2010. At current there are around 40-50 players in the league, although Carmichael estimates that only 15-20 of those are local Dutch players who would be eligible the play at the IC. They are hoping to recruit more in 2011, but the DAFA feels this would probably too late for the creation of an IC squad.

"If we could pull off a miracle during early 2011 and attract a big sponsor and/or players, we would love to take a team to down-under to challenge the IC2011. For 2 years running we are an EU Cup finalist and would love to learn from the 18-a-side format. Currently we are looking to make connections with AFL and SANFL clubs to give ongoing material support (balls, jumper, DVDs etc) to fill the gaps left by the AFL, with the vision to host the sister club in Europe on their end of year footy trip and in return use their facilities during the 2014 IC."

"Anyone with an interest in following the Flying Dutchmen’s form in Europe and/or has any good leads or ideas about which Dutch organizations and communities in Australia to contact, are welcome to contact us here, because we can use all the help we can get!"

The following photos are courtesy of Rod Lyall at cricketeurope.com.

DAFA Grand Final day action - Amsterdam Devils vs Den Haag Ooievars

DAFA Grand Final day action - Den Haag Ooievars vs Utrecht Saints

DAFA Grand Final day action - Amsterdam Devils vs Utrecht Saints