South Africa Lions

footyWILD ROARS INTO SA
AFL South Africa looks for 40,000 participants by 2010.

Australian Football was first played in South Africa way back in 1899, when Australian Army troops were stationed in the country as part of their involvement in the Boer War.

In the ensuing 15 years, the code grew from strength to strength, with over 20 clubs playing competitive football throughout South Africa.

With the onset of World War I, the great depression and later World War II, competition ceased to make way for the War effort, and the game largely lay dormant for many years to come.

Nearly 85 years later, in 1997, the spirit of Australian Football emerged again with Australian Defence Force Army personnel holding clinics in the rural areas of the North West Province. In 1998, the AFL held an exhibition match between the Brisbane Lions and the Fremantle Dockers at the famous Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, with famous cleric and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu tossing the coin in front of a curious crowd of more than 10,000.

In 2001, Australian Volunteers International (AVI) placed its first volunteer with AFL South Africa, Dale Alsford, in Mafikeng with South African organisation SCORE (Sports Coaches Outreach). This proved the beginning of a significant relationship between Australian volunteers and the growth of the game in South Africa.

Alsford was followed by other AVI volunteers, Gary Learmonth (2002-2003), Steve Harrison (2003-2005), Jack Arnold (2006) and Allison Simons (2006-2008).

Over the past seven years, each AVI volunteer has played a significant role not only in sports development, but social development in the communities, regions and provinces in which they work in South Africa.

In February 2006, an historic South African tour by the Flying Boomerangs Indigenous youth team heralded the start of a new era in Australian-South African football relations. The South African national team returned to Australia to play the Indigenous youth team in February 2007, with games in the Northern Territory and Western Australia including a curtain-raiser to the Indigenous All Stars versus Essendon exhibition clash in Darwin.

Also in 2007, the footyWILD program was launched, promoting Australian Football as 'the new game that roars' and bringing players of all colours and nationalities together in a country with a fractured past.

AFL South Africa has grown to the extent that it now accommodates 7500 registered footyWILD players, with an aim of 40,000 participants by the end of 2010.

This year started with the second visit of the Indigenous Flying Boomerangs side to South Africa, followed by an exhibition match between the Fremantle Dockers and Carlton at SuperSport Park in Centurion, and last of all the second AIS-AFL Academy squad tour of South Africa.

For the first time, the South African national squad was chosen after the South African National Championships, where all four Provinces came together to compete in over one week of competition.

Under their new moniker, the Lions from South Africa will be looking to improve upon their two wins in the 2005 Australian Football International Cup.

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