USAFL (with President Denis Ryan)

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Re: USAFL (with President Denis Ryan)

Post by cos789 »

The_Wookie wrote:
The USAFL’ administers Australian Football in America with a primary focus of growing the game. The USAFL manages the US Nationals and the National teams, the Revolution and the womens team, the Freedom. The board of the USAFL is primarily run by Americans, it had no Australians on it last year, but it recently added two. Ryan says that this mix is important, as the Americans can occasionally miss the history and culture that has gone into the game.

There are 35 teams in the USAFL, some of which are very strong including New York and Denver. There are other clubs which tread a finer line with player numbers fluctuating below to just above or just below the needed player numbers. Ryan says its his mission to get these teams some help and get them viable. Boyce says that around a third of clubs in the USAFL have associated womens clubs.

Some clubs began introducing Ausball, a touch footy version of the game as early as 2006, before the AFL formally introduced AFL 9s. Ausball in a unisex competition.

Many teams have a metro team

The number of players in the USAFL is somewhat nebulous, as players only register with the league if they intend to play in the nationals. Consequently the USAFL knows it has at least 1,000 players, but Ryan says that the total number of players including metro competitions is likely to be as high as 1,400 – 1,500 at most. Boyce says that there are probably 120 players in the New York area alone, and that some clubs have double the number of players in the representative sides playing metro footy.


Ten years ago, Denis Ryan was the founder of FootyKids, which was conceived as a Physical Education program with the hope that kids would play the modified form of the game at school and then form their own school teams. The proposal was put together, and presented to the AFL who gave them six months worth of funding to begin with.

The USAFL has a good relationship with AFL Canada, they play an international match every year called the 49th Parallel Cup. The Canadians have beaten the US once in the history of the competition. Ryan says that he is working towards increasing the number of matches the two countries play.

The US National championships were completed just weeks ago, having been hosted for a second time in Austin, Texas.The event requires space for 5 full size football fields.. With over 1,000 players attending it is the largest Australian Football tournament in the world.

Teams come from all over the US and Canada with 4 divisions of mens teams and a division of womens teams. Matches amongst the top divisions are 18 a side, with the number of players reducing through the lower divisions.
Katherine from womensfooty.com told Bigfooty that the womens division played either 16 a aide or 18 a side, where the official standard was 16 a side, but could be increased if both teams agreed to it.

Simon Boyce says that the ratio of Australians on the field cannot exceed 50%, with it being mandatory that 50% of players on the field be American born. Boyce says that Austin played very close to its quota. Some clubs, like New York and Calgary from Canada, end up with a large number of Australians on the bench. He doesnt believe that Australians are as influential in deciding match incomes as you might expect, although there are a number of good players in the competition including ex VFL and even ex AFL listed players.

This year saw several American AFL draftees, as well as Nick Riewoldt, and AFL officials attend the weekend event
Lots of different direction.
Nice try Cos.
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