AFL Eye opener ! South Africa's footyWild programme - how good is this?
Since the re-introduction of Aussie Rules in S.A. in 1995, participation in the 3 levels described below now exceeds 100,000, across 4 provinces and is jointly funded by Aust Gov AusAid, S.A Gov, AFL & 4 AFL Clubs, WCE, Freo, Carlton & Collingwood (each has a province) plus local sponsors. The National Sports Academy has AR as one of its 13 selected sports.
OVER 30 footyWild centres have been set up with staff, coaches & volunteers to cover
1. BIG5 - Each centre hosts up to 4 Primary Schools for a 90 minute after school session Mon-Thurs concentrating on the Big5 viz Marking / Kicking / Handball / Evasive Skills / Defence & tackling. On Friday afternoons for 20 weeks non-competitive scratch games are played to teach sportsmanship incl respect for players, teachers, volunteers & umpires. (8-13 yr olds from over 100 primary schools are involved )
2. footyWild High - Up to 2 high schools are assigned to each centre (49 so far) and they play in 16 aside teams in their own comp to AFL rules as the next stage of development.
3. footyWild Extreme - 26 of the centres now have open age senior teams who play in the 3 Provincial League Comps - 14 in North West, 6 in KwaZulu Natal (Durban), 6 in West Cape ( Capetown) while Gauteng Province based on Johannesburg is a year or two away from a comp.
National Championships are held annually between the Provincial teams drawn from 3. above and the National Team (Lions) is selected from this for the I'nat Cup, Annual Aust Indigenous V Lions clash & visiting teams (AFL Academy, Geelong Grammar etc)
The word from Ron Barassi & Brett Kirk is that the mass participation programme has been an astounding success. The way that South Africans have embraced the code at all levels right through to sponsorships is nothing short of "staggering and awe inspiring".
Is it any wonder AFL coaches have their eyes set on S.A. for AFL subsidised International rookie recruit lists ?
5 months ago
