England named European champions of Australian Rules football
England named European champions of Australian Rules football
The Times
October 22, 2008
Kevin Eason, Sports News Correspondent
They are still reeling from the success of Great Britain at the Beijing Olympic Games and smarting from the rejuvenation of the Poms as a sporting power in the world again. But there is more bad news for the Australians, for it seems that we are turning out to be rather good at their national game.
England are the new European champions of Australian Rules football, that bizarre mix of soccer and rugby with a bit of basketball thrown in. In fact, the Australians will probably be alarmed to discover that Aussie Rules is catching on fast in England, with the number of home-grown players up to more than 6,000 from virtually a standing start in little more than three years, an astonishing rate of growth.
A national league is being founded and Sport England, the organisation pledged to get the nation off its collective behind and on to the sports field, has given the sport a £75,000 grant.
The nation that gave us Kylie and Crocodile Dundee appears to be in danger of divesting itself of another treasured national asset if the Poms continue to improve at this rate. England Dragonslayers took part in the fledgeling EU Cup of Australian Football, which featured 12 teams, last weekend and emerged as victors, slaying Croatia in the final for some revenge on the country that defeated England's football team in the round-ball game's European Championship qualifiers.
Brian Clarke, the general manager for Aussie Rules UK, the sport's governing body in Britain, said: "It really is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. We find lots of people might not want to play football, as they know it here, or rugby, which might be too physical. Aussie Rules is a combination of both. It has been taken on in many of the rugby clubs and proving very popular, so it is catching on fast."
The typical European version of Aussie Rules is nine-a-side, unlike the professional 18-a-side game played Down Under, but that is only because there is not the depth of playing squads in this country - yet. For England play the full-size game on Saturday against Wales in Cardiff.
