South Africa

 

Australian Football was played at the turn of the century in South Africa, but lost impetus early in the 20th century. Now renewed interest is being shown in both Australia and South Africa in developing the game.

Since Nelson Mandela was elected President in 1994, South African sports leaders have looked for a sport that would appeal to both blacks and whites.

In 1995 the government tried to introduce the American game of gridiron into schools. But it was too physical, disjointed and expensive to attract widespread support.

But not Aussie Rules. The world's greatest game is growing at an amazing rate in South Africa and the future looks bright.

 

History

In the 1890s Australians working as miners in Transvaal played the game and organised a successful competition. Johannesburg had an Australian football competition among the estimated 1000 miners from Australia. Australian football was also played in South Africa during the Boer War, when a large contingent of Australian soldiers was on service there. Some were former League players.

Norman Waugh played in the 1897 Essendon premiership side, then left to live in South Africa. He believed there was a good future for the game there.

Lieutenant Moore, an Essendon player, started to organise the game, and it appears to have made rapid progress, as by 1901 there were five clubs in Johannesburg, four in Cape Town, four in Port Elizabeth, five in Durban, and several in the war zones of Pretoria, Ladysmith, Bloemfontein, Kimberley and The Rand.

There were two Australian Associations - Natal and Rhodesia - and several of the clubs adopted names of well-known Australian football teams in Essendon, Melbourne, Sydney, Norwood, Corio, Bendigo and Swan River.

Evidence of the game's early existence in South Africa comes in the form of a trophy held at the Australian Gallery of Sport at the MCG. The trophy was awarded to the premier of a South African Australian Football competition (1905), the Commonwealth team.

The game continued to hold its own, and at a meeting held in Cape Town in September 1908 it was decided to ask the Australasian Football Council to try and send a combined team to South Africa to help the game along. Failing this, it was suggested that one of the leading VFL clubs make the trip. Both Geelong and Carlton were considering the suggestion in 1913, but the outbreak of war in 1914 resulted in arrangements being cancelled. (C.C. Mullen, History of Australian Rules Football, pg. 156)

The growth of the game stalled about this point. The most obvious explanation is World War I, but there is little available historical evidence in Australia tracing the game beyond 1905.

Modern Times

In 1997 the North West Province of South Africa had a party representing the province in Boxing at the Arafura Games in Darwin. Whilst competing during the event they witnessed a game of Australian football and were very impressed with the game. So impressed that on returning to South Africa reports of the game quickly filtered through the Department of Arts, Culture and Sport of all the nine provinces with great interest.

Following this a contingent of Army Defence Personnel, led by Major Marty Alsford, played exhibition games and conducted coaching clinics in an attempt to introduce the game to the South Africans. The tour party of 12 included Australian Defence Force players, coaches and umpires. It was funded by the Australian Sports Commission, with support from the AFL and the South African Defence Force.

The tour kicked off in North West Province on 18 August and concluded in Johannesburg on 6 September 1997. During the tour Alsford was flown to Cape Town to brief the nine Provincial Heads of Sport and Recreation Departments on the game. It officially endorsed Australian football as "the new sport for the new South Africa".

It was suggested that the North West Province become the province to initially develop and promote the game of Australian football.

Just five months later, on February 22, 1998 the first international Ansett Cup match was played at the Newlands stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. The Brisbane Lions defeated the Fremantle Dockers 18.17 (125) to 16.7 (103) before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 people.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu tossed the coin at the start of the game, stayed for the duration of the match, and participated with children from the surrounding townships during "little league" football clinics held on the ground at half time. The AFL provided the children with footy gear; jumpers, shorts, socks and a ball each to thank them for their participation.

In the week preceding the match, an AFL advance party of two players from each team and the AFL's Football Development Manager held coaching clinics in the townships of the Cape Flats. Nearly 2000 children participated in these clinics, and all were invited to Newlands as guests of the AFL to watch the match. This was a tremendous success. As Australian High Commissioner to South Africa, Ian Porter, noted while watching the children run around the ground in a lap of honour after the half time clinics; "Anyone could take footy to the children of the townships, but this is the first time that anyone has attempted to bring the township kids to the footy, or indeed any major sporting event." And by all accounts it was a success. As one young participant was reported in a major South African newspaper on the day after the event, "this is the greatest day of my life."

Following on the good work of the Australian Defence Force, an under-16 South African team competed in the inaugural Jim Stynes Cup in Canberra, Australia from 27 September to 2 October 1998, coached by Neels Roodt.

Four under-16 teams participated in the event. South Africa, an Aboriginal team from Kormilda College (NT), an Aboriginal side from WA and an Australian Capital Territory side. Kormilda College won the event.

However, it was the display of the South Africans that captured everybody's imagination. The South African side arrived in Canberra three days before the event to ensure that they received some high level coaching and play a game against a local ACT club side. This was the first game ever played by the South Africans both individually and as a side.

One week later they got within 11 points of the ACT side, which was made up principally of representative players. In the background the six South African officials all qualified as Level 1 coaches after a thorough examination by Kim Beasland, an Australian Level 3 coach who toured South Africa with the Defence side and coached South Africa at the Cup.

In September 1999 Level 3 coach Mark Motlop traveled from Darwin to the North West Province to conduct football and coaching clinics. The emphasis was to further develop the game and train local coordinators to become sufficient in the game of Australian football.

Motlop conducted clinics in Lichtenburg, Itsoseng, Atamelang and Vryburg. All the clinics were conducted along the same format and at the end of each clinic on the second day, a game of Australian football was conducted for the participants to test their skills and talents and implement what they had learnt in the game.

Motlop was pleased with the results. "I feel that there is enormous potential to develop the game of Australian football in South Africa. The game of Australian football would be very much suited to the athleticism of the South Africans. They demonstrate an ability to be very skilful with an aptitude for the game."

The South Africans were keen to learn. Marty Alsford recalls a phone call he received from them at 2am one morning. "Major Marty, Major Marty", came the breathless voice across the line, over the background noise of a match in progress. "When the ball is thrown in, can the ruckman grab it with both hands and play on?" When Alsford replied in the affirmative the line promptly went dead.

In October 1998 the Adelaide Crows jetted out to South Africa on its end-of-season trip with a mission to promote Australian Rules in the republic.

A party of 38, including 30 players, conducted two coaching clinics for approximately 2000 under-privileged children.

Nearly a year in the planning, the trip was the brainchild of Crows chief executive Bill Sanders and was partly funded by the AFL and club sponsor Gerard Industries and its Clipsal electrical division which has business interests in South Africa.

AFL national development manager Kevin Sheehan and the first black South African convert to the game, Mtutuzeli "Clifford" Hlomela, in Adelaide on a 12-month AFL scholarship, accompanied the Crows on the promotional trip.

Hlomela, 17, spent the 1998 season with Sturt's under-19s in a trainee program backed by the AFL and State Department of Recreation and Sport.

Sanders said the Crows were keen to promote Australian football overseas and enhance the growing cultural and sporting ties between Australia and South Africa.

"We see it as an ideal opportunity to go to South Africa to put on some coaching clinics and roll on the AFL's program of opening our game to international exposure - and to any eager South Africans who want to try the game," he said.

"The AFL's making a strong push into South Africa and we see benefits in that."

"It's good for the game to have a broader audience, for the club to promote itself internationally and to raise the spirits of some of the country's disadvantaged communities."

In July 2001 the AFL, in conjunction with Australian Volunteers International and Sport Coaches' Outreach (SCORE), sent a Development Officer to South Africa. Based in Mafeking, Dale Alsford's role involved setting up an administrative infrastructure for ongoing management of both school and general community programs in South Africa. Alsford introduced a primary school teams competition, conducted Auskick clinics and trained coordinators, coaches and umpires. Former Melbourne great Brian Dixon played a leading role in organising the project.

As AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said at the time, "South Africa has a great sporting heritage and we are hoping our game, with all its skills and excitement, can be attractive to a large population with new opportunities opening up before it".

 

African players in the AFL

Essendon's Damian Cupido demonstrates the potential for African players to play in the AFL. Born in Cape Town, he played his first AFL game in 2000 for the Brisbane Lions to become the AFL's first South African-born player, and was an AFL Rising Star nominee in 2001.

African athletes continue to excel in such professional leagues as the NFL and NBA and there is no reason why they could not do the same in the AFL.

 

International Matches

1998	ACT 11.22 (88) d. South Africa 0.1 (1)
1998	Western Australia 17.12 (114) d. South Africa 0.1 (1)
1998	Northern Territory 16.14 (100) d. South Africa 1.0 (6)
1998	ACT 6.1 (37) d. South Africa 4.2 (26)
1998	Western Australia 8.9 (57) d. South Africa 1.0 (6)
1998	Northern Territory 18.16 (124) d. South Africa 1.1 (7)
1998	ACT 11.10 (76) d. South Africa 3.1 (19)
2002	New Zealand 25.13 (163) d. South Africa 0.1 (1)
2002	Canada 4.11 (38) d. South Africa 1.5 (11)
2002	Samoa 12.15 (87) d. South Africa 1.4 (10)
2002	Ireland 15.8 (98) d. South Africa 3.3 (21)
2002	USA 20.12 (132) d. South Africa 0.4 (4)

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