World Footy News

Playing half time demonstration games at other sporting events is just one of the innovations by Aussie Rules clubs in the US trying to gain exposure, recruits and sponsorship. The Denver Bulldogs are arguably the most successful club in the US and are reigning national champions. On March 25th the Denver Bulldogs hosted an indoor Australian Rules Football demonstration game on an Arena Football field when they played at halftime between the Colorado Crush and the Columbus Destroyers. The Pepsi Center is also the home to the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.

This is the second time that Denver has put on such an exhibition game here. Denver played a 7 minute match that you can see on their website at www.denverbulldogs.com. Indoor footy is not a new thing, it has been played in competitions in Australia for a number of years but never to crowds of this size, an estimated 14,000 strong crowd who cheered every hit and score.

The video on their website is well worth a look to see how it was done. In a modified version of the game to fit the stadium the Bulldogs and Dockers played hard and showed the basic skills of Australian Football as well as the bumps and bruises and more advanced skills of the game. One of the Australians from the Denver club provided blow by blow commentary to assist the local crowd in understanding what was taking place in front of them. The highlight had to be the ice hockey like hit on the sideline by Hank "the Butcher" Jones. For the record the score was Denver 42 points to Columbus 6.