Aussie Rules
by Matt Samra
The NRL season is starting to heat up.
Kiwis are getting excited about the Warriors’ prospects. But, meanwhile, another competition is also heating up - the AFL.
The average New Zealander knows nothing about Aussie Rules, let alone our history in the formation of the game.
In June of this year I visited Melbourne, the Aussie Rules heartland of Australia.
The city boasts nine teams out of the AFL’s 16. The game originated here in 1858, and the place is full of fanatical supporters. My complete lack of Aussie Rules knowledge encouraged me to indulge in a spot of research.
To my suprise, I found out that New Zealand has a national team called the Falcons. They compete in the Australian Football International Cup, which is basically the Aussie Rules world cup. We are the reigning champions after defeating Papua New Guinea in 2005. Australia don’t play in the competition because they’re too good.
New Zeand now has 550 competitors in four regional senior leagues - Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch. While this seems like a minute number (Australia has 600,000 players), there are over 10,000 junior players, which means Aussie Rules is one of the fastest growing sports in New Zealand.
New Zealand was first introduced to Aussie Rules in 1876. A hybrid match was played in Dunedin, New Zealand. Thanks to the Otago gold rush, many Australians brought the game with them.
Before long NZ had a formidable league of 115 clubs.
In 1889, a Māori footy team visited Victoria to play a program of Australasian Rules games. To everyone’s suprise they defeated the South Melbourne Football Club, which at that stage was Victoria’s premier club.
Later in 1908, New Zealand defeated both New South Wales and Queensland at the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival, an event held to celebrate 50 years of Australian Football.
Sadly, the game completly disappeared after World War One broke out. No clubs survived and rugby union became the national sport.
Apart from a few exhibition games and TV highlights, New Zealand has been completely forgotten about. But the current surge in popularity gives hope that one day we can compete professionally in AFL.
Interesting facts about Aussie Rules:
• Aussie Rules began as a way of keeping cricketers fit during the winter months.
• Supporters don’t ‘support’ or ‘go for’ a team. They ‘barrack’ instead.
• Before the start of each AFL games, players run through a banner constructed by supporters.
• Aussie Rules is the 4th most-played team sport in Australia, behind netball, soccer and cricket.