The Collingwood Football Club is set to make a huge impact on the Western Cape when it returns to South Africa for the opening round of the NAB Cup in February next year.
The Magpies will play the West Coast Eagles at Sahara Park, Newlands in the first ever game on African soil for AFL points.

Previous exhibition games have been held at Newlands in Capetown in 1998 when the Brisbane Bears played Fremantle and last year when the Dockers returned to take on the Carlton at SuperSport Park near Pretoria.

This is the first time however, that two AFL Clubs have squared off for something more than a chance to showcase the game’, with the hope that a crowd of over 10,000 will come and enjoy the spectacle of professional Australian Football at its finest.

What the South African public will make of ‘Joffa and the Collingwood Army’ is anyone’s guess but there will be little doubt that Australia’s most famous footy Club will be well represented in the shadows of the spectacular Table Mountain next February.

For Magpie defender Harry O’Brien, the return to African soil will be his third trip in 12 months following last year’s AFL Community Camp in Capetown and more recently, a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where he tracked the origins of his father’s birthplace.

O’Brien was Brazilian-born but his father is Congolese, making his connection with the AFL’s push into South Africa probably more relevant than most. Young Harry has certainly not forgotten his heritage, as evidenced by the recently-attained tattoo of Africa emblazoned across his left shoulder blade

 “A really important thing for me is  to identity and finding [out] more about myself in Africa is going to hold me in really good stead,’ said O’Brien after last year’s tour to the Western Cape.

As for the AFL’s expansion into South Africa, O’Brien has given the venture the ‘thumbs up’ as he watched hundreds of enthusiastic school children enjoy a footyWild  BIG 5 clinic – the introductory skill development program, pioneered through the support of Australian-based company Costa Logistics, who have significant interests in South Africa.

The Collingwood Magpies will spread the word in their home Province where there are now over 4000 footyWILD players across all age groups, from a National total of 17,000 plus.

The Western Cape, although relatively new to the code, produced 9 senior players who recently represented the South African Lions in the 2008 AFL International Cup  in Melbourne, where they finished third behind Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

With the Magpies keen to invest in the development infra-structure of Capetown perhaps it won’t be too long before they unearth a young South African good enough to join Harry O’Brien in Australia.

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