20,000 South Africans to play aussie rules by 2010

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Saints-Premiers
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Post by Saints-Premiers »

The South African Govt. want Aussie Rules as the 'new sport for the new South Africa' to unite the blacks and whites there. At the moment the blacks play soccer, the whites play rugby.

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broncos
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Post by broncos »

Nines wrote: Yes , it might help if you put a little grammer in there .
I have no idea of what you are trying to ask.

. :?
Evidently you might need to do the same. :lol:

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Anthony G
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Post by Anthony G »

Saints-Premiers wrote:The South African Govt. want Aussie Rules as the 'new sport for the new South Africa' to unite the blacks and whites there. At the moment the blacks play soccer, the whites play rugby.
Who has stated this? Did the SA gov come out and say it? Any chance of some info on it?

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Saints-Premiers
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Post by Saints-Premiers »

Anthony G wrote:
Saints-Premiers wrote:The South African Govt. want Aussie Rules as the 'new sport for the new South Africa' to unite the blacks and whites there. At the moment the blacks play soccer, the whites play rugby.
Who has stated this? Did the SA gov come out and say it? Any chance of some info on it?
It's been around for years, the Sth African Govt. did say it, which is partly why the AFL sees an opportunity there.

There was an interview on the ABC a few years back with someone high up in South African Govt. search WFN you might find it somewhere.

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Post by sandyhill »

The clarified question -
Anthony G wrote: ...Why is South Africa the main target for Aussie Rules? :oops:
Saints-Premiers wrote:The South African Govt. want Aussie Rules as the 'new sport for the new South Africa' to unite the blacks and whites there. At the moment the blacks play soccer, the whites play rugby.
Yes - and from the AFL viewpoint (though this whole thing started some years back without any AFL involvement), its relatively virgin territory compared to first world countries with its sporting codes already firmly entrenched, yet with enough infrastructure to make it worthwhile to invest in (i.e. the country isn't a complete third world basket case like many other African countries). Due to rapid population growth, and the dominant code of soccer not always keeping pace with this rapid expansion in all areas, with corruption within that code in SA also apparently a real problem, and with rugby union mainly confined to the slowly dwindling white population, it leaves a bit of 'vacant territory' for the AFL to take advantage of at the grass roots level. So far, much of the development has been in the North West Province, with the help of the Provincial Gov't.

Next question was -
Anthony G wrote: Who has stated this? Did the SA gov come out and say it? Any chance of some info on it?
Coincidentally, Tancred recently asked much the same question in Nine's 'Australian Football Stadiums' thread (World Stadiums). My answer was - "OK, here's 2 links on the AFL (sic) South Africa website -
http://aflsouthafrica.wordpress.com/200 ... th-africa/

"... The AFL has committed $400,000 a year for three years to AFL South Africa, with four AFL clubs (Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle and West Coast) expected to pay $40,000 each for exclusive development rights in a province. With partnership funds from the likes of Costa's firm, Tattersalls and the South African Government, the overall development budget is close to $1 million a year. ..."

http://www.aflsouthafrica.org/partners
Partners listed here include the 'North West Province Department of Sports & Recreation' and 'North West Academy of Sport'. They wouldn't list these without receiving some funding, and its one of the 12 sports at that academy.

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Anthony G
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Post by Anthony G »

Also, the infrastructure is already in place with many cricekt ovals scattered throughout the country.

sandyhill wrote: and with rugby union mainly confined to the slowly dwindling white population
The did manage to draw 50k+ to both semi finals and the GF of the Super 14.

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Post by sandyhill »

Anthony G wrote:Also, the infrastructure is already in place with many cricekt ovals scattered throughout the country.
sandyhill wrote: and with rugby union mainly confined to the slowly dwindling white population
The did manage to draw 50k+ to both semi finals and the GF of the Super 14.
Quite so - there's still 4.4 million whites in South Africa (out of a total 47.4 million), which I think is a bit more than NZ's total population, and I bet they still have many more union players than the total in Australia. However there used to be well over 5 million whites - their numbers are steadily diminishing as they're all moving to Perth in order to follow the Force with Egan.

Source for South African population/demographics - http://www.safrica.info/ess_info/sa_gla ... lation.htm

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Tancred
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Post by Tancred »

sandyhill wrote:Coincidentally, Tancred recently asked much the same question in Nine's 'Australian Football Stadiums' thread (World Stadiums). My answer was - "OK, here's 2 links on the AFL (sic) South Africa website -
http://aflsouthafrica.wordpress.com/200 ... th-africa/

"... The AFL has committed $400,000 a year for three years to AFL South Africa, with four AFL clubs (Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle and West Coast) expected to pay $40,000 each for exclusive development rights in a province. With partnership funds from the likes of Costa's firm, Tattersalls and the South African Government, the overall development budget is close to $1 million a year. ..."
I'm still waiting for a non AFL site to explain just what the RSA government is putting in here. Any sport that approaches a government and says we will spend money helping the poorest people in your country will be welcomed with open arms, in the same way FIFA welcomes every country putting in a World Cup bid. At the moment the RSA government could be contributing a lot of money, or they could just be saying you can use our cricket ovals for free.

The claims (on pro AFL websites) that Aussie Rules has been selected to united the country scream biased reporting. In the same vein of "the Greeks cannot run the Olympics so give it to Sydney again" and "South Africa cannot host 2010 so give it to Australia".

The further claims that gridiron was tried but then they moved on to Aussie Rules really streaches the mind. I used to share a flat with a gridiron player in Sydney some years ago. I know the huge costs involved with that sport and cannnot believe that the RSA considered such an expensive sport in such a poor area.
sandyhill wrote: http://www.aflsouthafrica.org/partners
Partners listed here include the 'North West Province Department of Sports & Recreation' and 'North West Academy of Sport'. They weouldn't list these without receiving some funding, and its one of the 12 sports at that academy.
Again, the link provided has an agenda to push. How much funding do they get? Is it all from the RSA or is it via the Australian compaines listed further up this post? Is it actual large scale investment from the RSA or is it using equipment donated by Australians? For all we know this could be the return the RSA had to make to get the $1 million investment listed above.

At the moment the RSA government is spending billions building football stadiums and infrastructure for 2010. If hosting the biggest sporting event on the planet is not going to unite the counry i have no idea what will.

If curling said to the AIS we will 100% fund 10 curling positions at the AIS for 20 years, and fully funding the building of 4 curling lanes, would that mean the Australian government was fully supporting curling?

Aussie Rules has a history of inflating figures. If a school child does a 2 hour clinic at school they are counted in the years participation figures. It's very easy to see them claiming all sorts achievements in South Africa with no confirmation from the RSA government.

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Post by Egan »

While you have points mate that are good. I think the same points can be made about any sport.

Tancred you love soccer, so people can say that because you are a soccer supporter you more critically analyse the context coming out of a sport you hate. Yet do not do it for sports you do like.

Do you instantly latch onto the "Soccer hating journos" when they do a report that is sensationalist.

Or do you critically analyse the points they are making to understand that they may have a point coming from a background that is not clearly close to heart.

Those who hate a sport, sometimes become to quick to pull the bias/propaganda card. Without actually thinking that things may be true/or something that their sport can learn.

Eg How many times do you see the FFA looking into Oceania and trying to help the kids of fiji, with soccer boots? Which is what I said we should do before the first A-League season on SFCU. The AFL has done what most competitions do not do, looking after a place and spending considerable amount of money outside their backyard, in area's of disadvantage.

The AFL should be nothing but commended, for bringing AFL to their country, the SA Government should also be commended. And the whole thing is fantastic for all parties.

Not least, the fact that the culture in some parts of the country has latched onto it (prior to AFL funding and influence, which is the real issue).

But, I hope they are calling the sport Australian Rules. :P

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Post by Simmo79 »

By the end of 2007, the figures recorded a total of 7,800 participants including 3,000 senior players, 800 juniors and 4,000 Footy Wild (Auskick) participants.[13] This represents a growth in participation of 160% between 2005-07.
From wikipedia citing the AFL's Australian football census.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian ... uth_Africa


In fact here's all the info on AFL International that you'd need. Surprised not much is made of the 9,000 players in China...
http://www.afl.com.au/Portals/0/afl_doc ... 240807.pdf

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Simmo79
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Post by Simmo79 »

Nines wrote:
Tancred wrote: I'm still waiting for a non AFL site to explain just what the RSA government is putting in here.
Well I don't think they'll come to you .

In the mean time another province has taken up Australian Football
and the numbers continue to grow .

The 2008 International Cup is going to be very interesting .

.
Paint-drying interesting or grass-growing interesting?

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Post by Cheesie-the-Pirate »

Train-wreck interesting?

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the crow
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Post by the crow »

so %0.042553191489361702127659574468085 of the population care.

with this in mind this forum should be called 47 245 495 South Africans dont care much for AFL. :lol:

but i suppose the country has a history of minorities influencing in the majority.

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Post by dibo »

Cheesie-the-Pirate wrote:Train-wreck interesting?
at least then you can ponder what sort of locos they are, etc. and so on... :wink:

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Post by yob »

I remember the last international cup when the PNG player did his knee - most spectacular knee i've seen since Richard Osborne.

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