Australian rules football in England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Australian rules football in England | |||
| Governing body | AFL Britain | ||
| National team | England | ||
| First played | 1888, London | ||
| Registered players | 3,600 (total) 600 (adult) 3,000 (junior) |
||
| Clubs | 20 | ||
| Competitions | |||
| Club | |||
| - AFL London | |||
| - Aussie Rules UK | |||
| Audience records | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Single match | 18,884 (2005). West Coast v. Fremantle (The Oval, London) | ||
 |
|||
Australian rules football in England is a team and spectator sport with a long but obscure history and has grown since 1989 to several amateur leagues. Australian Football League exhibition matches have been held in London every few years since 1972.
Contents |
[edit] History of Australian Rules football in England
[edit] Early games 1888-1914
Australian rules football was played by a British representative rugby team which toured Australia in 1888. The team arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on April 14. They trained with the South Tasmanian Football Club, before going to New Zealand for a series of rugby matches. After they returned to Australia they again trained in Australian rules in Sydney, before leaving for Victoria in mid-June. The tour included 19 matches, against Carlton, Bendigo, Castlemaine, South Melbourne, Maryborough, Fitzroy , Port Melbourne, South Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Adelaide Football Club (no connection to the later Adelaide club), Norwood, Horsham, Ballarat Imperials, Ballarat, Sandhurst, Kyneton, Essendon and Maitland (Hunter Valley, NSW). They won six matches, including a win over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on July 10, 1888, and drew one. The reigning Victorian premiers, Carlton defeated Great Britain at the MCG 14.17 to 3.8. At this stage goals and points were recorded but only goals counted in the score. eg When Great Britain played Castlemaine under very heavy conditions they kicked 1 goal 2 points and the locals kicked 1 goal 4 points but the match was declared a draw). Great Britain also played 35 games of rugby, making a total of 54 games in 21 weeks. A star of the team's Australian rules games was Andrew Stoddart, who captained the team for part of its tour and also captained England in cricket. The 1888 tour had been organised by the English cricketer Arthur Shrewsbury but his involvement with Australian Rules football did not end there. He planned to have an Australian team sent to the United Kingdom to play a series of demonstration matches and to that end he looked to Scotland where he had identified possible opponents. Shrewsbury’s plans are outlined in his correspondence with Alfred Shaw and Turner, the Nottingham Cricket Club Secretary.[1]
Between 1870 and World War I many overseas students studied medicine in Scotland, and some went down to England to play the Australian Rules teams in that country. On 14 April 1888, the Edinburgh Australians played an Australian Rules game against London University at Balham, a match which drew considerable praise in UK newspapers such as the Times and the Scotsman.
Shrewsbury suggested that the 'Edinburgh Australians' team at Edinburgh University should travel down to England to meet the Australian team in a series of demonstration matches in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Unfortunately his bold plan did not eventuate as the authorities in Australia aborted the venture and a possible expansion of Australian Rules in the UK was lost.
[edit] World War I
In 1916, a match was held at the Queen's Club in London between Australian Army teams, representing the Combined Training Units and the 3rd Division, in which many senior Australian rules footballers from all over Australia took part.[1] However, the end of World War I put an end to organised Australian rules competition in England.
[edit] A Fierce Rivalry Emerges
After the war, in 1921, the annual Oxford University-Cambridge University Varsity match was played for the first time between expatriate Australian students[2]. This game is still played[3], and is the longest running Australian rules fixture outside Australia[4]. The match is an official Varsity competition. In 2007 Oxford's Blues defeated the Tabs of Cambridge for the third year in a row with a scoreline of 19.11.125 to 3.10.28. This is the highest ever recorded score in a Varsity match.
[edit] Second World War matches
RAAF (Sunderland) vs RAF Mount Batten was played in 1943 in Plymouth.[5] In November of the same year, a game was played in Sussex between No.11 Personnel despatch and Reception centre team based in Brighton vs RAAF Headquarters from London.[6]
Teams representing RAAF, Headquarters vs Sunderland, met in Hyde Park in 1944 in front of a sizeable crowd. Headquarters defeated Sunderland 12.7 (79) to 5.4 (34).[7]
[edit] The First Local League
In 1967, a charity match was played in Regents Park in London, attracting a crowd of 1,000 spectators. it was followed by matches arranged against Royal Australian Navy personnel and local school sides and rugby clubs. A league was formed which by 1970 had six teams, including two English rugby sides which used the sport to keep fit in the off-season. Among the supporters were Rolf Harris, Barry Humphries and the late Michael Cyril Hall.[8] Clubs included the Kensington Demons, Earls Court Magpies, Oxford University Blues, Australian Dentists and Australian Navy (based in Portsmouth).[9]. It is widely believed that this league (of which no official name is known) dissolved in 1973, partly due to the transient nature of Australian expats and the lack of local involvement, and possibly also due to the arrival of VFL matches in London, which somewhat stole the limelight and spectacle from local footy.
[edit] Post-war Exhibition Matches
In 1972, the first exhibition match of the AFL was played at The Oval in London. By 1987, the game had become an annual event, missing only some years. With a large number of ex-patriate Australians, interest in the game grew and small crowds of up to 10,000 were in attendance for the event in some years. Interest and crowds grew further with the change of the VFL to the Australian Football League. Highlights during this time included large crowds for the Australian Football League's West Coast Eagles v. Collingwood Football Club (14,000) in 1997, Richmond Football Club v. Essendon Football Club (13,000) in 2002.
[edit] The British Australian Rules Football League
In 1989 the British Australian rules football League (BARFL) was formed. Serious competition began and the competition became more popular, with the local BARFL Grand Finals becoming a large event attracting attendances in the thousands, including a record crowd of 1,500 in 1999.
In 2002 a national team represented Great Britain at the Australian Football International Cup for the first time, finishing the tournament in 6th place. 2005 saw the British Bulldogs again compete in the International Cup, again finishing 6th overall.
Following the 2005 International Cup, promising 22 year old British Bulldog Luke Matias began playing with the Port Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League.
Also in 2005, the first Western Derby to be played outside of Australia, the West Coast Eagles v. Fremantle game was played as a pre-season test at The Oval in London, drawing a record crowd of 18,884.
In the 2005 Oxford vs Cambridge match, held at Oxford, the Oxford dark blues triumphed 99-22 over the light blue tabs, despite the loss of their inspirational full forward, whose finger was snapped off in a freak brawling accident. Like Daniel Chick and Brett Backwell, he is set to return with nine fingers to play again this year.
[edit] Emergence of Aussie Rules UK
In 2005 the first junior development program, Aussie Rules Schools, commenced. The program, co-ordinated by the new development body Aussie Rules UK, part of Aussie Rules International was kicked off. This project has seen up to 10 English schools adopt Aussie Rules as part of the school curriculum to combat obesity. Juniors teams have competed at the London Youth Games.
2006 was a big year for Aussie Rules in England, with the admission of new BARFL clubs in Manchester, Middlesbrough and Thanet.
On September 17, 2006 history was made in Denmark when the England Dragonslayers took on the Denmark Vikings in Europe's first fully-fledged international junior Aussie Rules match. England claimed the King Canute Cup, with England 6.10(46) defeating Denmark 0.6(6).[10]
In mid 2007, a bitter turf war erupted between the new body "Aussie Rules UK" and the established BARFL with the formation of the Aussie Rules UK "National League" . The ARUK's contention was that the BARFL was only interested in expat rich areas of London, and that regional and developing areas of the United Kingdom, such as Wales, had been ignored by the BARFL. While the BARFL favoured traditional full ground football with 16 or more players, ARUK was played 9-a-side on rugby grounds, giving it better access to grounds and players. Clubs loyalties were tested and some clubs fielded sides in both leagues.[11]
In July, the AFL announced that the annual London exhibition match was likely to be abandoned for the year, after only the Western Bulldogs had expressed interest.[12]
In a first in 2007, England soundly defeated Ireland in Dublin 11.15(81) to 2.9(21), holding high expectation for the Bulldogs performance at the 2008 International Cup.[13] In the same year, the best of ARUK were soundly defeated by the BARFL.
[edit] AFL Britain
In 2008, a resolution to the divide between the two competing leagues saw a single national body, AFL Britain form, which formally affiliated to the AFL. Aussie Rules UK became the youth program for the new body. The BARFL was dissolved and became AFL London, while regional leagues including the Scottish Australian Rules Football League and the Welsh league affiliated with the new national body.
[edit] Participation
In 2004, there were a total of around 435 senior players across 18 clubs in England.[14] The local league has a higher number of ex-patriate Australians compared to other countries that participate in the sport, however the league recently put in place caps on the number of expatriate players in certain divisions to improve the mix and encourage more local players.
In May 2007 the first Women's Footy game was held and there is now a league with two teams.
By the end of 2007, the game had experienced substantial growth due to the placement of permanent development officers. AFL International Census figures indicate over 3,600 participants[15]
[edit] Audience
[edit] Television
Setanta Sports and British Eurosport are the current holders of the British rights to the Australian Football League (AFL). Setanta Sports shows three live games each round of the season including the playoffs and the AFL Grand Final. Eurosport shows one game a week but the coverage is delayed.
[edit] Attendance Records
[edit] Local Competitions
1,500 (1999). BARFL Grand Final. West London Wildcats vs Wandsworth Demons. London (source IAFC)
[edit] Exhibition Match
18,884 (2005). West Coast v. Fremantle (The Oval, London)
[edit] National Team
The national team organised by the BARFL and recognised by the Australian Football League are known as the British Bulldogs and have attended both International Cups to date.
Aussie Rules UK have also fielded a team at the EU Cup known as the England Dragonslayers. There is a possibility that England, Scotland and Wales will eventually field national sides at the International Cup, but at present all three feed into the Bulldogs.
[edit] Leagues
[edit] Open
[edit] Juniors
[edit] English born players in the AFL
[edit] Current Players
- Will Thursfield (Richmond)
- Brad Moran (Kangaroos)
[edit] Past Players
- Fergus Watts (St Kilda)
- Clive Waterhouse (Fremantle)
- Colin Alexander (Collingwood/Brisbane)
- Mark Bayliss (Collingwood)
- Lawrence Bingham (Hawthorn/St Kilda)
- Wayne Blackwell (Claremont/Carlton)
- Chris Burton (Footscray/Richmond)
- Ian Dargie (St Kilda/West Coast)
- Harry Davie (Melbourne/Carlton)
- Fred Fairweather (North Melbourne)
- Andy Goodwin (Richmond/Melbourne)
- Paul Harding (Hawthorn/St Kilda/West Coast)
- Johnny Leonard (Subiaco/South Melbourne/West Perth/Claremont)
- Brian Mynott (St Kilda)
- Richard Nixon (St Kilda)
- Polly Perkins (Richmond)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Surrey Cricket AFL annual exhibition match at 'The Oval'
- Official AFL Britain website
- Official BARFL website
- ARUK National League
- Aussie Rules UK
- Oxford University Australian Rules Football Club
- Video of Aussie Rules from YouTube
[edit] References
- ^ Letter from Shrewbury to Alfred Shaw. 'Football's Forgotten Tour' (p50)
- ^ "Aussie Rules' history in UK - in just 250 words"
- ^ "Oxford vs Cambridge, Aussie Rules, 23/2/2002"
- ^ Triumphant Oxford are rucking great from oxfordstudent.com
- ^ Message
- ^ Australian War Memorial UK0742
- ^ Australian War Memorial UK0900
- ^ Obituary throws up questions about British footy history from worldfootynews.com
- ^ London Footy Sixties Style from fullpointsfooty.com
- ^ Aussie Rules - England defeat Denmark
- ^ BARFL and ARUK 2007 seasons set to go
- ^ AFL London game unlikely in '07
- ^ GB smash Ireland in European power shift
- ^ World Footy Census 2004 - Europe
- ^ AFL International Census 2007
