The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is Australia’s premiere sports training institute offering elite development programs in 26 sports including Australian Rules Football (AFL), with a varying number of scholarships offered annually to Australia’s finest sportsmen and sportswomen. The AIS / AFL Academy U17 squad toured South Africa over 4 consecutive years from 2007-2010 enjoying a wonderful cross-cultural experience which included footyWILD clinics and the opportunity to play the South African Lions National team at venues such as Sahara Park, Newlands Cricket Ground.

The AFL KickStart program uses Australian Football to promote healthy lifestyles in Indigenous communities and facilitate the dreams of Indigenous youth throughout Australia.

Every August, 50 Indigenous boys aged 14-15 years attend the annual AFL KickStart Camp, gaining fantastic experiences such as high performance training, playing at an AFL stadium and learning from Indigenous role models including Ambassador Cathy Freeman, former Sydney Swans star Michael O’Loughlin and current Indigenous AFL players.

Camp participants are selected for the Indigenous youth team, The Flying Boomerangs, which toured South Africa over 3 consecutive years from 2008 - 2010, with more recent journeys to the Pacific region.

The sharing of stories between two of the oldest indigenous cultures in the world through the medium of sport has been a revelation for both cutltures with the AFL's Flying Boomerangs recognised for its vision and scope, as an award winner at the 2011 Beyond Sport Awards in Cape Town.

The AAFC was formed in 1933 with three member states: South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. Western Australia joined after the second world war when its definition of amateur football was brought into line with the other states.

The AAFC is designed to provide inclusivity in participation, pathways to reach potential, collaboration in community building and advocacy for amateur football. The scope to facilitate National and international events was broadened in 2010 when the AAFC U23 team journeyed to South Africa for the first time with the express purpose of helping build capacity at AFL South Africa's National footyWILD Championships held in Cape Town. The young Australians provided fantastic coaching and umpiring support to the four competing Provincial teams over 4 days of the event, with the tour culminating in a game against a selected SA Lions National team.

The Carlton Football Club is a Melbourne-based icon, which supported the Gauteng Province from 2007-2009, home of major metropolis Johannesburg. The Blues made their inaugural trip to South Africa in January 2008 to conduct an AFL Community Camp and play the first ever game of Australian Rules Football in the country’s most densely populated Province. The ARTH AFL Challenge, at major International cricket venue SuperSport Park in Centurion, attracted 5000 fans in a first for Jo’burgers, far more accustomed to rugby and soccer

The Fremantle Dockers are one of two Perth-based Clubs with strong connections to South Africa. The Dockers proudly supported the North West Province from 2007-2009 and were particularly proactive in the first 12 months of the partnership, securing major sponsors NKWE Platinum and the Continental Group to help drive their support of South Africa’s spiritual home of AFL. The Dockers played in the historic Capetown exhibition game against the Brisbane Bears in 1998 before returning a decade later to conduct an AFL Community Camp in the North West and play Carlton at SuperSport Park, Centurion in February 2008.

The West Coast Eagles were the first AFL Club to test the South African market when they conducted the first formally sanctioned AFL Community Camp in their Province, Kwa Zulu Natal (December 2007). The Eagles experienced traditional African culture ‘up close and personal’ sleeping on straw mats in a Zulu village and even having to kill a chicken for their evening meal.

Australia’s most famous football club the Collingwood Magpies, were proud partners of the Western Cape Province from 2007-2009. Collingwood made its first visit to South Africa in January 2008 conducting its annual high altitude training camp in Potchefstroom in the North West Province, a location famed as a base for International athletes due to its higher altitude and champagne weather.

South Launceston FC in the Tasmanian Football League (TFL) became the first club on the Apple Isle to recruit South frican players with the successful trial of Khaya Sikiti (Cape Town) and Tshobolko Moagi (Joahnnesburg) in 2011. The two players performed above expectation, with their clear improvement evident when they re-joined the South African Lions team at the 2011 AFL International Cup. South Launcestoin is poised to host another South African player in 2012 continuing to build on the positives established in 2011.

With a proud history since 1861 as one of Australia’s leading independent schools, The Geelong College is a thriving learning community where tradition and innovation are woven into the ethos and practices of the school.

The College offers a ‘real life educational experience’ that is outward-looking and expansive, connecting our students to the wider world of knowledge, ideas and experiences that exists beyond our gates.

No more was this evident than when Geelong College became the first Secondary School to tour South Africa in June of 2007. The tour broke many boundaries allowing Australian school students to engage with those less fortunate through a range of cross-cultural activities, not to mention plenty of footy action in the form of footyWILD clinics and matches against the local Provincial teams.

The North West Academy of Sport were original providers of funding and in-kind support for Talented AFL players in the North West Province, an agreement which extended to regular scientific testing of players at the High Performance Institute in Potchefstroom. AFL is one of eleven recognised sports on the Academy roster.

North West Cricket has been a working partner of AFL South Africa since 2006, providing the fledgling organisation with its first official headquarters at what is now called Senwes Park. The stadium provides a solid hub for the operational dlivery of programs throughout South Africa and includes the use of the picturesque ground for major events such as National Championships and International fixtures against visiting teams such as the AIS/AFL Academy.