South Africa will host the opening round of the AFL’s NAB Cup pre-season competition in 2009 with Collingwood and the West Coast Eagles set to do battle at Sahara Park, Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday February 7.

With the recent release of the 2009 NAB Cup fixture, the AFL has once again indicated it is willing to take the pre-season competition to all corners of the globe, following a NAB Cup match in Dubai last year.

AFL Chief Operating Officer Gillon McLachlan said there were a number of factors behind the scheduling decisions.

"We wanted to play a game in South Africa and that was the only weekend we could have it. It also enables us to get all of our games in the NAB Cup in prime time spots, so the most amount of people can get to watch them," he said.

McLachlan said it was exciting taking a game to South Africa.

"We think in the end that the Dubai experiment was a great success last year … South Africa has interest to us and NAB commercially, but moreover it's an area where we've been spending a lot of our game development investment," he said.

Since mid – 2007, the Costa Logistics sponsored footyWILD BIG 5 program has taken the country by storm with 30 footyWILD centres in four Provinces providing regular participation opportunities for almost 10,000 young African boys and girls.

In July 2008, AFL South Africa conducted the first ever footyWILD National Championships for High School and Open age players from al four Provinces. Grandslots supported the event held in Potchefstroom at picturesque Senwes Park with over 240 players, coaches, team managers and volunteers learning an enormous amount about the game and themselves over the 5 day event.

The maturing of the code in South Africa became even more evident at the recent AFL International Cup in Melbourne when the South African Lions overcome the odds to beat much-favoured rivals in the USA and Ireland to finish third, a vast improvement on previous campaigns.

AFL Clubs Carlton, Collingwood, West Coast and Fremantle have all thrown their weight behind the push into Africa by supporting a Province each. The Eagles and the Magpies will return to play the first ever NAB Cup game in Africa in the shadows of the majestic Table Mountain, whilst Fremantle is also making a return visit to the North West to support major partner NKWE and their community development activities in the Platinum Province.

To find about more about the 2009 NAB Cup game in Cape Town next February please click here