Nauru Chiefs

FOOTY NO.1 IN NAURU
Despite hardships, game's future looks bright.

Nauru is an island nation in the South Pacific. It is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 square kilometres, the least populous member of the United Nations, the smallest independent republic, and the only republican state in the world without an official capital.

There is virtually no recorded history of Australian Football in Nauru, although common consensus suggests that the great game was first played in the 1930s by Nauruans who had been to school in the heartland and birthplace of the code, Victoria, Australia.

Nauru is proud of the fact that they can claim to be the only country outside Australia where the No. 1 sport is Australian Football.

Unfortunately, football has not been played for the past two seasons as a result of on-field problems between local communities. However, on a more positive note, the past 12 months have seen a renewed effort to revive the local competition with the government, through the ministry of sports, directly intervening to review and restructure the administration and introduce a revamped competition.

With assistance from the AFL, the Nauru Australian Football Association (NAFA) administration will undergo critical changes and aims to have the new competition start in season 2009.

There will be a renewed focus on junior development and discussions to introduce football in the school curriculum will be an integral part of developing the game in Nauru.

In preparation for this year's Australian Football International Cup, the ministry of sports, in collaboration with the Stawell Football Club (Wimmera League, Victorian Country Football League) arranged for 17 players from Nauru to play football this eason with four different clubs in the VCFL. This initiative was to enable the Nauruan players to obtain much-needed training and match conditioning given the suspended competition in Nauru. This arrangement has been a very successful one and all concerned have benefitted greatly from the experience.

The Nauru team is fondly known as the Chiefs and the country was part of the inaugural International Cup back in 2002. Although the Chiefs missed out on the 2005 tournament, the 2008 team has been fortunate to receive support from national carrier Our Airline, which provided the air travel for the team from Nauru to Brisbane.

In recognition of this support, the team is officially known as the Our Airline Nauru Chiefs.

With the renewed focus on football in Nauru there is great excitement and expectation that the revamped competition will see marked improvement in the management and development of the game, with plans in place to ensure a grassed playing surface is available.

Currently there are no grassed ovals whatsoever, with the playing surface consisting completely of phosphate dust over crushed dirt. NAFA players pride themselves on being "the hard men of football" and you would have to be made of stern stuff indeed to even consider playing on such a surface.

This year the Our Airline Nauru Chiefs are coached by Wes Illig and managed by Manfred Depaune.

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