| Australian rules football in New Zealand | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| New Zealand captain Andrew Congalton takes a strong mark in front of an Indian opponent at the 2008 International Cup | |
| Governing body | New Zealand AFL |
| National team | New Zealand |
| First played | 1871, Wellington |
| Registered players | 16,000 (total) 600 (adult) |
| Clubs | 19 |
| Competitions | |
| Club | |
| - Auckland AFL | |
| - Canterbury AFL | |
| - Wellington AFL | |
| - Waikato AFL | |
| Audience records | |
| Single match | 11,666 - 2000 Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn Football Club. Westpac Stadium, Wellington |
Australian rules football in New Zealand is currently a minority sport in a nation where rugby union is the national sport and predominant football code. Australian rules has a history in New Zealand dating back to the late 1860s, however modern competition was commenced in 1974 and is played during the summer to avoid clashing with the rugby season.
The game is primarily organised in four provinces - Auckland (Auckland Australian Football League), Canterbury, New Zealand (Canterbury Australian Football League), Wellington (Wellington AFL) and Waikato (Waikato AFL). A new Otago league is currently in formation.
A number of New Zealanders have played the game at the highest level, the now fully professional Australian Football League. Players developed in New Zealand have played semi-professionally in Australian state leagues.
New Zealand's national senior team were international champions in 2005, however still behind Australia having never beaten an Australian club at any level.
Contents |
Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand, the Māori were playing a ball game called ki-o-rahi which greatly resembled Australian Rules Football and rugby.
The Christchurch Football club, founded in 1863[1] played football according to its own rules[2], one of which was to bounce the ball every 4 yards, very much similar to the modern game of Australian Football. The club adopted rugby rules in 1876.[1]
Australian Football was introduced to New Zealand around 1868. The Nelson Football Club was formed this year and played a hybrid version of Victorian and Association (soccer) rules[3][4]. By the 1860s there was regular trade between New Zealand ports and Melbourne, and the revised Victorian (or Melbourne) rules of 1866 would have been brought with some of the immigrants. The Nelson Club were the first club in New Zealand to adopt Rugby rules in 1870[5].
The Wellington Football Club was formed on 12 May 1871[6]. The club initially adopted Melbourne rules, but soon switched to Rugby rules "principally for the reason that the clubs in adjoining provinces play under those rules, and as the club contemplate playing a match with the Nelson club before long the necessity of such a course is apparent." The last match played under Melbourne rules was on 24 June 1871[7]. This was not the end of the matter, however, with the club for a short period in 1875 adding the Melbourne rule of bouncing the ball. The club soon after reverted to full Rugby rules [8].
The Dunedin Football Club, formed in 1872, initially played under its own rules. Shortly thereafter a second club in Dunedin, the Union Club, was formed and is thought to have adopted Victorian rules. Poor weather meant that few games were played in both the 1873 and 1874 seasons. The Dunedin Club adopted Association (soccer) rules in 1875, while the Union club retained Victorian rules[9]. The clubs were able to compromise, and the first match between the clubs that year was played under Victorian rules on 19 June 1875[10]. The return match was played under Association rules a few weeks later. In 1876 a hybrid match was played between the two clubs. The first half was played according to rugby rules, and the second half according to Victorian Rules.[11]. By 1877 both clubs had adopted Rugby rules [9].
"At the annual meeting of the Union Club in 1877 it was decided by 17 votes to five to adopt the Rugby Union Laws, the club in all its matches with the D.F.C. previous to that date having stipulated for one spell of every game being under Victorian rules."[12]
The first games of football in Auckland were played in 1870 with the rules being a mix of Victorian and Association. In 1873 the Auckland Football Club adopted Rugby rules following a visit by two members of the Wellington Club [4].
An Auckland team undertook the first inter-provincial Rugby tour in late 1875. This sparked additional interest in Rugby in regions such as Canterbury and Dunedin where several codes were being played. Ultimately the success of this lead to further representative tours, and proved to be a catalyst for Rugby to become the dominant code in the main regions [4][9].
The Reform Football Club was formed in Wellington in 1879 to "play under the Victorian rules"[13]. In the same article several clubs are also reported to have been formed in Dunedin and one in Nelson. The Reform club's first practice match was held in the Hon. J. Sheehan's paddock, Hobson St, on 5 April 1879 in front of a "considerable number of spectators"[13]. The Reform club enjoyed a reasonable amount of press coverage throughout 1879. From 1880 there is very little mention of the club, and how long it was in existence is unknown.[14]
The 1888-1889 New Zealand Native football team matches saw a Māori team visit Victoria, as part of a year long tour of the UK and Australia, to play a program of Victorian Rules games. The team plays 8 games, winning three and losing five. It defeated South Melbourne Football Club,[15] which at that stage was Victoria’s premier club.
By 1904, Wellington had a league of five clubs (City, Newtown, Petone, Wanderers and Federal) [16]. In the same year, Auckland had three clubs in the newly formed league (Auckland Imperial, Victoria, and Austral football clubs).[17]
Additional clubs were to join the Auckland league in the following years, including the Eden Football Club, which recently discovered records show won back-to-back Auckland Australian Football League premierships in 1907 & 1908.[18]
In 1905, two New Zealand representatives (one from the North Island and one from the South) attended the Australasian Football Conference where the Australasian Football Council was formed.[19]
In 1908, New Zealand defeated both New South Wales and Queensland at the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival an event held to celebrate 50 years of Australian Football.[19]
Already in decline, the outbreak of World War I and the popularity of rugby union signalled a hiatus in the game in New Zealand. No clubs survived after the war.
New Zealand was no longer represented and without any overseas delegates, the council reverted to the Australian Football Council.
Nevertheless, some efforts were made to rekindle interest in the code during these years.
In 1961, the Melbourne Football Club toured New Zealand during its off season, becoming the first VFL/AFL club to do so.[20]
In 1974 senior competitions began in Christchurch (The Canterbury Australian Rules Football Association)[21],Auckland (Auckland Australian Football League)[22] and Wellington.
In 1995, the competition had grown sufficiently strong to field a national team, the Falcons.
The Arafura Games gave the side the first opportunity to compete at an international level. In 1995, 1997 and 1999, New Zealand took the silver medal in Australian Football at the event in Darwin, Northern Territory, running second to Papua New Guinea.
In 1997, the New Zealand Australian Football Development Foundation (NZAFDF) was formed.
1998 saw the debut of New Zealand born Trent Croad into the Australian Football League, the beginnings of what is a successful career at elite level.
In 1999, NZAFDF incorporated as governing body and was renamed New Zealand AFL.
The years of 1991, 1998, 2000 and 2001 saw official Australian Football League exhibition matches staged in New Zealand so that the AFL could gauge local support.
In the inaugural Australian Football International Cup in 2002, New Zealand finished 3rd.
In 2003, local Aussie Rules convert Nick Evans debuted for the famous All Blacks rugby union side against England.[23]
2005 was a huge year for Australian Football in New Zealand. The national team, the Falcons defeated Papua New Guinea to win the International Cup and were later invited to send a team to the Australian Country Championships.
Since 2004, there were talks of a New Zealand Australian Football League franchise or club relocation as a possible expansion plan for the league. New Zealand fields teams in several international club competitions in other football codes including Super 14 rugby, the National Rugby League and A-League.
The country became considered as a 7th Australian state by the Australian Football League's international development department.
2006 saw the first ever live regular season Australian rules football matches on television (the AFL) were shown by SKY Network Television[24].
In November 2008, 17 year old Liam Ackland was invited to the AIS/AFL academy.[25]
The Hawthorn Football Club, which had been involved in New Zealand since about 2004, stepped up its involvement in 2009 with development funding to set up a school competition, the "Hawks Cup", for recruiting and talent identification.[26]
The New Zealand AFL currently has around 600 senior players.[27] New Zealand, like Papua New Guinea and Queensland has experienced a boom in junior participation in recent years with reports of as many as 10,000 junior Auskick numbers in 2005 [28] growing the total participation to as many as 16,000 in 2006 [29].
The governing body for Aussie Rules in New Zealand is the New Zealand AFL.
The national team is the Falcons. The Falcons were Silver medallists in the Arafura Games in 1995 and 1997, runners up in the Australian Football International Cup in 2002, then became International Cup champions in 2005.
| Date/Year | Location | Stadium | Teams | Crowd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/10/1991 | Auckland | Geelong v. St Kilda | 8,500 | |
| 1/03/1998 | Wellington | Basin Reserve | Melbourne v. Sydney | 7,820 |
| 29/01/2000 | Wellington | Westpac Stadium | Western Bulldogs v. Hawthorn | 11,666 |
| 2001 | Wellington | Westpac Stadium | Brisbane Lions v. Adelaide | 7,500 |
Australian rules receives regular coverage in The New Zealand Herald.
Some New Zealanders have found their way into the professional Australian Football League competition.
| Currently on an AFL senior list |
| Player | VFL/AFL Years* | VFL/AFL Matches* | Connections to New Zealand, References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kurt Heatherley | - | - | Born Tauranga[30] (international rookie) |
| Karmichael Hunt | - | - | Born Auckland[31], father from Cook Islands, mother from Samoa |
| Cheyne Hutchinson | - | - | Born Hamilton, Parents[32], Part Maori |
| Shane Savage | 2009- | 3 | Born, Parents[33] |
| Khan Haretuku | 2007 AFL Draft | - | Parents, Part Maori[34] |
| Brent Renouf | 2008- | 23 | Born, Parents[33][35] |
| Adam Campbell | 2006- | 13 | Born Christchurch, Parents[36] |
| Trent Croad | 1998- | 222 | Born, Parents[37] |
| Daniel McAlister | 1997-2002 | 6 | Born, part Maori |
| Donald Dickie | 1996-2000 | 55 | Born, part Maori |
| Wayne Schwass | 1988-2002 | 282 | Born, part Maori |
| Warren Jones | 1978-1988 | 123 | Born |
| Peter Bennett | 1944-1954 | 103 | Born |
| Marty McDonnell | 1939-1950 | 92 | Born |
| Thomas O'Halloran | 1925-1934 | 142 | Born |
| Joe Sellwood | 1930-1945 | 181 | Born |
| Harry Haughton | 1912-19 | 113 | Born |
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
   | World Footy Census 2004 - World Footy Census 2004 - Oceania - World Footy News |
| | Google Video of Falcons performing the 'Haka' at the 2005 International Cup - New Zealand Haka versus Samoan Siva Tau - Wangaratta - AFL IC 2005 |
| | NZ Herald Australian Rules News Section - Australian Rules News - NZ Herald |
| | Video of Aussie Rules - YouTube - Aussie Rules Football Promo |
| | All Black almost a Swan - All Black almost a Swan | The Daily Telegraph |
|
|
Top topics
Wikis
Map
Search