cos789 wrote:South Africa a hunting ground for GWS recruiters as code takes off
Daniel Lane
March 28, 2010
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SOUTH AFRICA has emerged as a new source of AFL playing talent with revelations there are 20,000 registered players across four provinces in the republic's booming Aussie rules competition.
GWS manager Graeme ''Gubby'' Allan will follow the Australian Institute of Sport under-17s' team tour of South Africa later this month and while he will closely monitor the Aussie players as potential recruits he'll also keep tabs on the locals.
His team signed 19-year-old South African Bayanda Sobetwa in February and the club's high-performance manager, Alan McConnell, said there were high hopes for him.
''He's a tall, lean athletic type,'' said McConnell of the teenager who played for South Africa against the AIS/AFL team in 2008-09 and in the South African team that finished third in the 2008 International Cup.
''He's coming off a low base in terms of his knowledge and experience but the speed in which he's picked the game up is really very exciting. Bayanda is the best of the players in his area but one would hope we'd be able to accelerate that learning and development at a rapid rate once he trains on a regular basis with those who regularly play the game.''
McConnell said the rise of AFL throughout South Africa should not be seen as a surprise.
''They're very receptive to what we're trying to do over there,'' he said of the South Africans. ''Kids there see this as an opportunity and they're grabbing it with both hands. Socially, they come to AFL with a very optimistic approach to what we are doing.''
Aussie rules was first introduced to South Africa in 1899 by Australian soldiers fighting in the Boer War. By 1901 there were 20 clubs, but the spread of the game was curtailed by the outbreak of World War I.
When the South African league aligned itself with the AFL in 2006 it enjoyed a rapid development and growth. Some of the interest came from unexpected quarters, with the South African government announcing in 2007 that AFL would be introduced into some prisons to help rehabilitate inmates.
McConnell said AFL appealed to both major races.
''Traditionally sports in South Africa were attached to race,'' he said. ''Cricket and rugby was the whites, soccer the blacks. But AFL appeals to both.''
The AFL has injected $400,000 a year for the past five years and also sent representative teams, including the Flying Boomerangs, a squad of 25 indigenous teenagers headed by former Sydney Swans star Michael O'Loughlin, on tours.
A number of AFL teams have had pre-season training camps in South Africa, with players conducting coaching clinics.
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