Australian Football truly is growing rapidly in South Africa, with Western Cape one of the newest regions but already boasting a four team competition to add to their junior clinics program. The finals of their inaugural season (the year will be split into multiple seasons), dubbed footyWILD Extreme, have just finished, with Khayelitsha Divines challenging favourites the Nyanga Thunderstorm in a closely fought battle. The region has also secured sponsorship and the assistance of The Salamander Company to help with promotion - the following report is courtesy of them.

The Australian Institute of Sport / Australian Football League elite youth squad has just completed its second tour of South Africa. The following report is courtesy of AFL South Africa, with additional reporting by this author.

“Don’t fence me in” said Kevin Sheedy, as he spoke to the AIS/AFL Academy and South African teams on the eve of the second International game between the two countries this week. One nation has been playing the game for 150 years; the other an emerging country which has only just embraced the Aussie game in the last ten years, with major progress made in the last 12 months. After travelling Australia spruiking the 150 message and talking up international footy, and having visited both the US and Canada previously, we think this was Sheedy's first trip to the AFL's best supported international project.

The message was clear from one of the most visionary men in the game’s history. “The closer the world gets and the more I see other games such as soccer, rugby and American football, the more I am convinced that we have the greatest game on the planet and we should be sharing it with the rest of the world – South Africa is well and truly part of that vision”, said Sheedy at a special function in Potchefstroom in the North West Province on Monday night ahead of Tuesday’s International clash.

As some of the players from the historic 2007 AIS-AFL junior tour of South Africa have now broken through into senior AFL ranks, it might be time to reflect on their future prospects and those of their opponents, the South Africans.

The Australian Indigenous under 16 side, the Flying Boomerangs, have completed their African tour undefeated, knocking over the locals 164 to 38 in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The match was preceded by an under 13s game between the home town and another local area, Nyanga. In another good sign for development of the sport, both matches received some local media coverage, an important step in exposing locals to footy and opening people's mind to the game.

The following report, by Mzwanele Mkalipi, can also be read online here: Blimey, bra, it's Aussie rules footy

There's been a couple of good reports on Game 2 of the South African development team versus the Australian Indigenous side. The two sides met in kwaMashu (near Durban) and with plenty of local promotion a crowd variously stated as "over 1000" and "2500" turned up to cheer on the home nation (and boo the Aussies - at least they're passionate!)

Pleasingly the match got some local press, something that Australian Football hasn't had a lot of in South Africa thus far, at least not showing up in on-line searches (which admittedly may not be the best resource in a country such as this).

Read Yusuf Moolla's report, Local ground transformed into Australian football field, online in South Africa's The Mercury. The image to the right of the article suggests it was accompanied by an action photo from the game. AFL Commissioner Colin Carter was on hand to witness the game's early growth in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

The Aboriginal side pulled away in the first three quarters of the 16-a-side match, but obviously the locals were competitive. In what was presumably a sporting gesture to test their own players and allow the South Africans a chance to fight back in front of their supporters, the Boomerangs played with 14 on the field towards the end. The Buffaloes duly fought back with five unanswered goals, much to the delight of locals. But the Australians hung on to win 11.10 (76) to 8.9 (57).

Also see Ben Broad's Indigenous team pushed, but prevail.

A preview of Game 3 is this article, ’Litsha to host an historical game , on the Western Cape CityVision website.

After their 100 point loss to the Australian Boomerangs side, South Africa's developmental team headed down to Kwa Zulu Natal province to pick up some more talented locals ready for Game 2 in Kwa Mashu, near Durban, on Wednesday 6th February. We'll have a report on that match as soon as possible.

Next up is the third and final match, again to feature a large contribution of locals, this time in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, in the Western province. Local development officers have been talking up the event to get the community involved, advertising the match as the first ever international Australian Football game to be held in Cape Town. Details are:

Khayelitsha Cricket Oval (Town 2, behind Law Courts), Saturday 9th February

Performances by the Kwaito Group "All Blacks" and traditional dance group "Imduyekezo Mat", music by DJ D Lo, competitions, prizes and giveaways.

12pm Curtain raiser - Nyanga vs Khayelitsha under 13s
2pm Main game - South Africa vs Australia (Indigenous Youth Team)
4pm Speeches and medal presentation
6pm Post-match function at Mzoli’s, Guguletu

Just a quick reminder that last Saturday's AFL pre-season match between Carlton and Fremantle in Pretoria will be telecast in Australia on Foxtel. Fox Sports 3 will show the match on Wednesday 6th February at 10 PM AEST (immediately after the soccer) and Thursday 7th February at 10 AM AEST.

Not surprisingly the talented Australian indigenous under 16s team has given the South African development side a football lesson in the curtain raiser to the Carlton-Fremantle AFL match in Pretoria. The Aboriginal side contains some of the best young players in Australia and raced away with the match, finishing up 100 point winners. It was pleasing to read that the home side had the support of an enthusiastic crowd - giving the locals someone to barrack for is an aspect of getting people involved in sport that should never be overlooked.

The result demonstrates that patience will be needed with the South African program. For all the good news stories we're seeing, and thousands of children involved in Auskick's equivalent, FootyWild, it will take a few years for the cream of those young players to become skilled at Australian Football and make their way into AFLSA's national sides.

North West province is the only region with sustained development over several years and the bulk of the Buffaloes sides have come from there. With AFLSA keen to spread the game further, and some of the best prospects from the recent talent camp being included in their youth squad, it's actually conceivable that this year's side may have more "athletes with potential" but less experienced footballers. So the results of this year's 3 match series should be regarded as a baseline from which to judge future matches. Having said that, in the next two games South Africa will feature even more raw young recruits from other provinces.

Game 1

AFL Indigenous Youth Team: 5.3 10.4 14.6 19.9 (123)
South African Buffaloes development squad: 0.3 1.7 2.10 2.11 (23)

The AFL website's reports is: Boomerangs off to flying start

After trailing early, Fremantle rallied to defeat Carlton in the ARTH AFL Challenge at SuperSport Park in Pretoria. Sadly the game was marred by an injury to Kepler Bradley resulting in an ambulance coming onto the field. It ultimately proved to be a simple concussion, but given the match was an exhibition to promote the sport in front of thousands of children and their parents, it was a terribly unfortunate incident. We can only hope it didn't dissuade too many spectators from wanting their kids to play the game. Bradley returned to the ground later in the match, so hopefully this was noted by the crowd.

Overall the night seems to have been successful, with an official crowd of 5222, both clubs getting a solid workout, and the Australian indigenous team not unexpectedly too strong for the locals in the curtain raiser. The match also saw Carlton's new Irish recruit, Michael Shields, play his first AFL game.

Besides going live into South Africa on cable channel SuperSport, Saturday's AFL pre-season match between Carlton and Fremantle in Pretoria will be telecast in Australia on Foxtel later in the week. Fox Sports 3 will show the match on Wednesday 6th February at 10 PM AEST and Thursday 7th February at 10 AM AEST, but confirm closer to the date. It's being billed as an AFL Exhibition match.

With the NAB Cup widely regarded as needing changes to excite public interest in Australia (crowds are generally much smaller than the main season), let's hope next year we see an official NAB Cup game in South Africa televised live into Australia. With West Coast and Fremantle both involved in that country, better placed geographically in terms of flight times, and normally drawn to play each other in their NAB Cup openers, it seems the obvious choice to start the 2009 pre-season competition.