World Footy News

The Russian city of St Petersburg is the nations second largest city behind Moscow. With a population of close to five million people, the city sits on the Neva River where the water flows gently into Neva Bay, then the Gulf of Finland and eventually the Baltic Sea.

The city, previously known as both Petrograd and Leningrad, has a rich history. It is also the new home of Australian Rules football in Russia with the inception of the mighty St Petersburg Cats football club.

Viacheslav (Slava) Belov is one of the driving forces behind the new club. According to Slava, "Our club was founded on the 10th June 2014 sitting at a pub on the banks of the Neva River at our IGM. We elected our president, treasurer and secretary." And so, the club was formed.

The following article is written by Gil Griffin, a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. He has had a long relationship with the game of Australian Rules football through his writing for the Frematle Dockers website and The AFL Record as well as his podcasts for Big Footy Dockers.

This article explores the journey of American players in Australia and the decisions they made, and journeys taken, to turn their backs on an Anerican basketball dream and give Australian Rules football a go.

Following is an extract from his article, and whilst it is lengthy, it is also highly rewarding with the deeper insights into how and why American athletes are prepared to make the quantum leap in sport and lifestyle to play Australian Rules football.

Maybe, just maybe, Tijs Lejeune represents a new era of Australian Rules football followers. Since the beginning of the game in the mid-nineteenth century Australian Rules football has been adored and accepted as our own “Australian game”. Even in more recent times with the onset of international matches, recruiting, multicultural acceptance and general interest there was still a strong belief by many that the game might occasionally spark outside of home, but will forever remain an Australian product for Australian people.

But Tijs offers one tiny shred of evidence that a new generation is being born into the existing international push over the past couple of decades and are seeing the game in a more global way.

When talking about the game, Tijs admits “I've always loved viewing the international expansion articles of AFL in Europe, NZ, USA and love following the progress of the combines and the introduction of AFL footy players in America.”

With the news of another Australian Rules football club coming to life in St Petersburg, Russia, another club has also emerged closer to the current Russian “heartland” of the game in Moscow. The Lazy Koalas are the latest addition to the footy scene and their co-founder, Mikhail Artemyev, was kind enough to answer some questions about the club’s creation.


Mikhail began by saying that “the second in August 2014 is considered to be the founding date of the new Australian Rules football club the "Lazy Koalas". In Moscow there are 5 or 6 teams and there is also one team (we know of) in St. Petersburg. From the moment we created our team, we were able to take part in two cups under the auspices of AFL Russia.”

The team is always looking for opportunities to play, but sometimes the weather or other factors intervene. “Competitions are held in Moscow every 2 to 3 months, but due to adverse weather conditions during the period from December to April, the team only trains on individual plans of each team.”

 

In keeping with the off-season theme of players from international backgrounds looking for opportunities in the AFL, this article from the website of the New York Magpies further illustrates the drawing power our game is gathering.

 

The article looks at his recent journey within Australian Rules football from the days he left soccer and baseball behind to focus his efforts on our beloved game. We acknowledge the New York Magpies and the use of their story. For more information on the New York Magpies club, go to their website at: http://nyfooty.com/site/

 

 

New York Magpie Alex Aurrichio began his journey to Australia flying high from a National Championship win by the Pies this October.

As reported in the Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper, recent successes with the development of international players will see AFL clubs make greater efforts to scour the world for new talent. The past few years have seen more and more international players joining AFL clubs. Most notable are higher profile players such as Mike Pyke from Canada (Sydney Swans), Tadgh Kennelly (Sydney Swans), Marty Clarke (Collingwood) and a host of other Irish players scattered across the clubs.

 

 

Eric Wallace (North Melbourne) came to the club after the AFL Combine in the USA whilst Kurt Heatherley (Hawthorn)  joined the club almost directly  from New Zealand junior programs. The international experiments started years ago are now beginning to bear fruit, and this is likely to gather even more steam after the recent AFL Europe Combine in Dublin. The following  Courier Mail article takes a closer look.

According to Don Cruttenden, Kenya is a country that is just waiting to embrace Australian Rules football. As he says “With its hospitable weather, largely active and energetic population and standing in the world as the producer of the greatest supply of middle and long-distance runners in the world, I believe the potential for the game to advance in Kenya is immense.”

Rumblings of the game being played in the African nation have been around for a little while, notably the recent work of Tom Purcell in Nairobi who has pioneered local games including the recent challenge match between Kenya and Tanzania. See our article Buffalo soldiers: Kenyans beat Tanzanians in historic match.

Don, however, is moving to take things much further. His role as a teacher at the Greensteds International School in Nakuru (Kenya’s fourth largest city, 160 kilometres north-west of the capital Nairobi). His role as Director of Physical Education at the school has allowed him to introduce Australian Rules football into the school program.

Today, 1st January 2015 the Adelaide Advertiser (page 65, Sport Section) published an article about the search for footy players in Europe extending beyond Ireland.
The Advertiser's distribution readership covers all of South Australia and beyond to Broken Hill in NSW. Following is that article:

THE AFL is set to cast their foreign draft net beyond Gaelic footballers to find new talent in local leagues playing the game elsewhere in Europe.

Four Irish rookies were signed up for the 2015 season by AFL clubs in Australia including Essendon, Geelong, Fremantle and West Coast.

With the local Middle East competition enjoying its festive season break the opportunity to review the season to date presents itself. However, due to the postponement of the two games involving the Muscat Magpies, only four games have been completed to date. The scheduled nine games in 2015, as well as the two rescheduled Magpie games, will now hold the greatest clues to the season.

 

With that in mind, a very early guide to team's progress and chances has been put together ahead of the recommencement of matches on January 16th in both Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

 

 

Dubai Dragons - Started their season with an impressive 57 point win over last season’s premiers, Doha Kangaroos, in Doha. This was an emphatic message that the Dragon’s sought to exorcise their demons from last year. To drive home the point the Dragons then won the traditional local derby against the Dubai Dingoes by 26 points. After the break they play the Muscat Magpies, BM Bulls and Abu Dhabi Falcons. To lose any would be an upset of sorts, so the Dragons are well on the way to another grand-final, barring surprises.  

 

 

NZ Aussie Rules fans have benefited enormously over recent seasons with Sommet Sports screening the majority of weekly games live and free to air.

Sadly, on Friday 12 December due to lack of funding initially promised from financiers, the channel ceased to exist for the time being.

Sommet amazingly managed to deliver quality Sports television for 18 months on 1/3 of the funding initially assured to them.

Since their closure they have received many messages of support and dismay from viewers throughout the country who have loved watching the many sports events that have been delivered FREE to all New Zealanders 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Sommet are currently investigating a range of proposals including Crowd funding. This is where the public fund a project or idea.

For the benefit of Aussie Rules in NZ for existing and future fans of the game, WFN wish them every success.