Footy\'s international future - what next and how?

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Footy\'s international future - what next and how?

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Tuesday, October 30 2012 @ 12:38 am ACDT

I believe Australian Aussie Rules followers have tended to totally under value the concept/idea of "playing for your Country" mainly because as Aussies we have not ever been able to do it at Aussie Rules and players at the top of the game in Aussie still aren't able to do it. Recently the AIS/AFL junior teams have "Played for Australia" against the European Legion etc. so the likes of Troy Menzel can actually say he has done something in Aussie Rules that the likes of Ron Barassi has not.

In most other sports "playing for your country" is the greatest accolade that a player can aspire to, and at present there are about 4or 5 International Tests being played every weekend through out Europe at Rugby Union (they are qualifying matches for the 2015 RWC)(this coming weekend we see Poland v Germany, Switzerland v Croatia, Serbia v Andorra and Latvia v Denmark) All these matches are played at amateur level drawing the players from amatuer/university competitions/leagues, and many of these matches have been played in front of crowds of several hundred spectators.

Currently there are ten European Aussie Rules playing Nations that have played some "international matches" (altho' Spain is probably not able to do so now) and a couple more who just might (with 'some' assistance/sanctioning from AFL Europe) be able to in the near future (Norway, Italy, Netherlands and Czech Republic????).

The "Internationalisation of Aussie Rules" in Europe would go a long way if AFL/AFL Europe could secure a sponsor for say two or three 'sanctioned' Internationals each year for the next several years. No matter how small and amatuer the 'domestic competitions' are in those countries the less likely that players are going to stop playing when they know that there is a good chance that they might be able to "represent their country" later this year or next year.

I believe AFL Europe should be working towards staging more 'internationals' as well as holding "combines" and providing goal post grants to Europe's leagues. If the AIS/AFL juniors play another match on mainland Europe next year it must be held in conjunction with an International Test, matches that could conceivably be played in front of several hundred spectators many of whom could be watching an Ausse rules match for the first time(because it is an international) instead of a few bored polo ponies.

Is AFL sending a high profile representative to present the "player of the series" medal in the upcoming Fiji v Nauru series? If not, why not?

Internationalise Aussie Rules by encouraging and assisting the Nations currently playing Aussie Rules to stage 'sanctioned' International Tests.

Footy\\\'s international future - what next and how?

Authored by: Harley Vague
on Tuesday, October 30 2012 @ 03:42 am ACDT

Cam, I can identify with your sentiments. In the short time of the existance of AFL Europe there has been a huge improvement in organisation and the Euro Cup will steadily grow in importance for the reasons you have given - playing for your country. Obviously any highlights like an exhibition game will help push things along. IMO there is no real why people cannot be playing Australian Football just like people playing amateur RU. In fact, in the long term, Australian Football has certain advantages over RU like 9-a-side, much simpler rules and better in climatic extremes except rain.

Footy\\\\\\\'s international future - what next and how?

Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Thursday, November 01 2012 @ 12:20 am ACDT

Harley -

Rain is okay - - it's the wind that kills it (especially when combined with rain!!!).

Cam -

The AFL killed of SoO, so there's no higher level representative footy for AFL players. We perhaps could do something akin to the NRL's allstars/indigenous game - - presently we have the Indigenous side plays an AFL club every couple of years up in Darwin - perhaps we could have an Indigenou All Stars vs a 'World All Stars' where the World All Stars can include players of 'multicultural' heritage who might use RU or RL WC eligibility criteria.

Hopefully junior development can continue - one thing a sport like cricket throws up is that the U19s world cup event is usually pretty evenly contested and even Zimbabwe can do very well. But - to develop and sustain that talent into senior cricket is a tougher ask.

So - hopefully, and it's started with the Sth Pac and World U/16 sides - hopefully there can be real international footy only growing at the junior level and that surely would lead to a scenario where a pretty good 'world team' could at least take on the VFL and do better than the TSL did earlier this year???

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