Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

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Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, February 27 2013 @ 10:09 am ACDT

There's some good points there that can't be stressed enough. How many people out there would be prepared to try a new sport because they saw a poster or a friend encouraged them or they saw a youtube clip? And then of those people, who is prepared to give up their whole weekend and a significant amount of money to travel away to play, and against teams that are increasingly high standard so you might not even get a kick? It's a huge ask for new players. Local leagues are key.

The game didn't start in Australia with Melbourne playing Adelaide - if that was needed it never would've got going at all. It started as local people playing various forms of football in Melbourne and Adelaide and other cities through the 1840s and 1850s. Then one day some guys in Melbourne settled on a set of rules to stick to, and those rules became a more popular version to play by across Melbourne and regional Victoria and players in Adelaide decided to adopt the same rules, mostly, and slowly but surely you had more local clubs form and eventually by 1877 formal leagues were set up in Adelaide (SAFA which became SANFL) and Melbourne (VAFA which became VFL) - these were effectively like the local leagues people are trying to set up around the world such as in Baden-Württemberg. We should see these leagues in a similar way.

Now after a few years the SA and Victorian leagues started sending representative sides to play each other in one off matches perhaps once a year, but it wasn't until really the 1980s and 1990s that a regular national league emerged (the AFL which spawned from the VFL, but not the VFL that used to be the VAFA - confused yet?) whereby clubs would play regularly across state borders. That's 100 years after the first local leagues formed. So in many ways it's amazing how leagues like AFL Germany manage to play regular footy, but it will become so much stronger once the local leagues establish underneath them.

It would be amazing if in say 10 years there was an 8 or 10 team AFLG with each side supported by a 6 to 10 team local league. It would be so much stronger, never short of players, much better able to appeal to sponsors, and start to develop a solid match day crowd. That would be exciting for the game. Same could apply to leagues all around the world. Then Aussie Rules would be very stably entrenched as a semi-popular amateur sport around the globe.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Wednesday, February 27 2013 @ 11:20 am ACDT

One detail - the current VFL came from the VFA, not the VAFA ;)

The VAFA (the ammos) still exist as a separate entity.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, February 27 2013 @ 02:39 pm ACDT

Sorry, yes, everywhere I wrote VAFA I meant VFA. The rest of the confusion should be accurate. ;-)

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Wednesday, February 27 2013 @ 04:05 pm ACDT

Haha, yep - it was, I was just being picky.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - The Newcomers and League Overview

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Wednesday, February 27 2013 @ 10:08 pm ACDT

VFL and VFA were separate entities right up until late1970's. The VFA, (after the VFL pulled out) WAFL and SANFL played matches in the first AFL to exist back in the seventies.

Night matches were played at Norwood Oval in SA. Usually it was the top 4 teams from previous season in each league taking part. VFA played their matches 16-a-side back then (except when playing in AFL matches).

The matches were televised live and I can remember that for quite a few matches the TV cameras were set up opposite the Grand Stand (rather than in it) so that the "crowd" could be seen by the viewers. No one watched from the cold, miserable, wet eastern side of the oval and it looked like there were no spectators with the cameras in the normal telecast positions.

Not really on topic, but I suppose playing matches with less than 18-a-side is nothing new.

Have to agree with you Brett getting a league up and running with regular (weekly or near weekly) matches is so important for recruiting and keeping the players inspired. Playing against the same guys every week/match doesn't do much for inspiration either, so if these guys get a 4 or even six team/club competition up and running in the region the prospects for footy are boundless. As it looks like the bulk of the players are very new to the game this new competition could well be very even in standard across all the teams. Makes for a more exciting competition all round if small winning margins are more numerous than not.

Best of luck to all involved for a successful venture.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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