Foreword

 

There are still plenty of people who laugh at the idea of Australian football as a world game. Thankfully Brian Clarke is not one of them.

Through his hard and patient work in putting together this rich and informative book, we have ample proof that our game has a relevance and impact beyond Australian shores.

None of the visionaries like Brian who see a place for Australian football on the world stage are so naïve as to think that all of a sudden we can challenge soccer or rugby union.

However, we should also be aware that a lot can happen over a century if you have faith in your game and invest in its future. When the Rev Naismith invented a game called basketball to keep people fit over 100 years ago he could not have known that it would eventually produce the most famous athlete in the world - Michael Jordan.

In Australian football, we need to be patient as we develop a global face. We need to be going to the world with the resources we have and when the world comes to us, we need to welcome the new practitioners with open arms.

It's not easy to find the resources. In Australia only half the population grow up in the States where Australian football is the dominant winter sport.

So our foundation is a small one. But when you read this book and hear stories of the youngsters bursting with enthusiasm for the game in Denmark, in the townships of South Africa, in the Pacific islands, you know that as small at is might be, that foundation is also a very strong one.

One of the things which has made the Essendon Football Club so strong is being prepared to go out and meet supporters and potential supporters anywhere in Australia.

Our club travelled around the nation while other teams looked at us as if we were mad.

But along the way, we managed to turn Darwin into a suburb of Windy Hill and to make our presence felt in places like Cairns, Exmouth, Hobart, Broken Hill, Sydney and Cairns.

The return to our club for this effort has been one of the highest supporter bases in the AFL. The return to the game has been a huge growth in people who love and support Australian football.

As a sport, we should not be frightened to take our game anywhere in the world where it is welcome.

The return from this long-term investment will be new supporters - or for the benefit of the bean-counters who might criticise this idea, more customers.

When you look at the number of people in the world who play soccer, you have to be aware of the danger to our game being over-run in Australia if we do not take seriously the job of keeping it exciting and attractive to supporters.

Even if we do that, the sheer weight of numbers might still overwhelm us.

But we can't just throw up our hands and walk away, not if we really love Australian football and want to see it flourish for another 150 years.

We need to go about expanding our game with a confidence that says to anyone out there that we love Australian football and believe in it.

By showing people in his own country what has already been achieved, Brian Clarke will provide us with more confidence, more self belief.

By showing the world what has been done, Brian is playing his part in bringing to our game a whole new audience.

Everyone can be a winner when Aussie Rules The World.

Kevin Sheedy
Essendon Football Club

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