The Scottish Australian Rules Football League has kicked off, but it's the rough and tumble work the guys are doing off the pitch that could have the biggest impact...

It is a hazy summer evening in Glasgow.  As the sun sets, the familiar silhouette of kids in the park kicking a ball around is framed by the dimming night sky.  They are being called in for their supper, but, naturally they don’t want to go.  They are too busy – too happy – playing footy.

But there is something altogether unfamiliar with this particular idyllic image.  The ball isn’t round – it is oval.  ‘OK,’ you say, ‘so they are playing rugby – Big deal.’  But the ball isn’t the only thing that is oval.  So is the pitch.  And there are four goalposts at each end, not two.  There isn’t a crossbar to seen.

Confused?  Don’t be.  Welcome to Scottish Australian Rules Football; a game of power, aggression, skill, endurance, agility and balance; a game which combines the demands of football, rugby and Gaelic football; a game which is rapidly on the increase in Scotland, and which is doing its bit in the community to boot.

So when In The Winning Zone spoke to Eddie McAvinchey of the Scottish Australian Rules Football League, (SARFL) and he told us all about ‘footy’ in Scotland and the hard work the Scottish League are putting in, we just had to make him and his boys our ‘Team of the Month’.

Now, in Scotland we all love pub teams.  And the SARFL is no different.  When Andy Butler and Richard Prentice, two Australian ex-pats living in Britain, transferred from London to Scotland in 2003, they found there was no outlet for them to pursue their favourite sport, Aussie Rules.  Except for the pub.

“They had played in London together with the north London Lions,” explains Eddie. “They met a few other Australian ex-pats who were keen to play footy again when they moved to Scotland, and had also come across a few Brits who were keen.  It was done on a bit-by-bit basis for the first year, but eventually the Walkabout bars in each city helped with funds and gave the sport a profile. Enough people flowed in to allow teams to be created.”

And now there is a thriving, growing (if somewhat small) league.  In all there are four Scottish teams, (two from Edinburgh, two from Glasgow,) who take part each year – with the 2007 season having just kicked off.  The team names are imaginative to say the least – Glasgow keeps the Sharks and the Magpies cooped up, while the streets of Edinburgh are rampaged by the ominously titled Bloods and the Bodysnatchers.  There is set to be a fifth team, based in Aberdeen, joining the league in 2008.  Team name suggestions on a postcard, please.

And the league is steadily progressing – standards are rising year-on-year, and just last month, (May) Glasgow hosted the annual invitational ‘Haggis Cup’, a pre-season Aussie Rules tournament for teams from across Europe; this year squads came from England, Ireland and Belgium.  But it was Scotland the Brave who reined supreme, with an Edinburgh Bloods and Bodysnatchers combined team defeating the North London Lions 27-7 in the final.

However it is the SARFL’s junior programme, (based in Glasgow in partnership with Culture and Sport Glasgow’s Community Programme) which could really make a difference here in Scotland.  Not content with the league simply being an outlet for enthusiasts and Aussie ex-pats to get a game, Eddie wants the league to look to the future and invest in youth.

“By introducing a junior programme, we want to develop excellence from an early age to ensure that we have a highly competitive crop of Scottish players in a few years time.  Australian (AFL) clubs have started recruiting from foreign countries, notably Ireland, due to the sport’s similarity to Gaelic Football, and there is no reason why, with the proper training and right attitude, a young Scottish player couldn't break into the elite AFL in a few years time.”

Youth development is particularly important to Eddie, because what the Scottish players in the SARFL are missing compared to their Aussie team-mates are the core techniques that can only come with years of practice.  Athletic ability and enthusiasm are nothing without a solid grounding in the game’s rules, conventions and basic skills.

But it isn’t just about the development of future Aussie Rules stars.  The SARFL junior programme goes much deeper than that, explains Eddie:  “A big aim of the junior clinics is to bring free activities and sports to kids in some of the city’s disadvantaged areas, such as Govan and Drumchapel.  Sport is the best way to keep kids active and healthy, and hopefully we can give them the chance to try something new, coach them to succeed and build some self-esteem.”

And there aren’t many better sports to build morale and self-assurance than the rough and tumble of Aussie Rules.

“Kids should get down and play.  It will give them the chance to play a new sport which is more exciting and free-scoring than football or rugby, will get them fitter, and will build confidence in them when they see their hard work paying off on the park.  We want to give the kids in these communities a club which they can feel a part of, in a tough sport which they can tell their mates about and stand out from the crowd.

“Ultimately, we would hope to assemble a Scottish junior side which would have the opportunity to represent this country against other national junior sides.  The kids joining our programme have the chance to be the vanguard of junior Aussie rules in Scotland, and to be selected to form the first junior Scottish side.”

And the benefits of the programme just keep on rolling out, explains Eddie.  The hardest working young players will be offered the added incentive of work experience with some of Scotland’s biggest and best companies.  The law firm, McGrigors, was one of the first to get on board with such a scheme. 

“This would be offered at the end of the summer programme and before kids started school again, giving a lucky few the opportunity to answer, when asked what they did with their summer: ‘I learned to play Australian Rules football, played for Scotland and worked in a large corporate law firm.’  Therefore we are encouraging schools in the Glasgow area to get behind us with this programme and offer their pupils something different, challenging and rewarding.”

As with many sports in Scotland, there is much more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye.  But then again, Aussie Rules is an old Scottish favourite.  Believe it or not, it is in our blood to play Aussie Rules. The name may not suggest so, but it was actually a Scot who invented the game way back in August 1858.

“People don't realise that Scots were responsible for the creation of Aussie Rules football back in the 19th century,” explains Eddie.  “The first ever organised game was arranged and umpired by a Scottish teacher who had moved to Australia.  The game has a long history of links to Scotland.  Essendon, one of the largest club sides in Australia, was formed by a Scot who hailed from Girvan, Ayrshire, and the club was formed at a meeting in his house, ‘Ailsa’, named after Ailsa Craig.”

And now that Glasgow Council have agreed to provide a permanent Aussie Rules oval (pitch) in Victoria Park, we have no more excuses not to embrace the sport with the passion of our fore-fathers, and allow the sport to become the next big things in Scotland.

RO

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