A Brief History of the game in South Africa – Did you know?

• Aussie Rules was first played in South Africa in 1899 as a result of Australian Army involvement in the Boer War
• In 1901, there were over 20 clubs playing competitive football throughout South Africa
• Between 1906 and 1913 the game was gaining a foothold however at the advent of the 1st World War in 1914, competition ceased
• It wasn’t until 1997 that the game finally returned, once again through the Australian Defence Force, who held football clinics in the rural areas of the North West Province under army personnel, led by Marty Alsford
• In 1998, an AFL exhibition match was held at Newlands Cricket Ground in Capetown between the Brisbane Lions and the Fremantle Dockers
• In 2001, Australian Volunteers International (AVI) placed it’s first volunteer, Dale Alsford, in Mafikeng with South African organisation SCORE (Sports Coaches Outreach), helping grow the game significantly
• Dale was followed by other AVI volunteers, Gary Learmonth (2002-03), Steve Harrison (2003-05), Jack Arnold (2006) and Allison Simons (2006-08) who all added their own considerable influence to the game abroad
• In 2002, former Melbourne FC player and ex-Victorian Sports Minister Mr. Brian Dixon in his role as Chairman of Footy South Africa, managed to secure Australian Football as one of 11 recognised sports at the NW Academy of Sport
• In a period of embryonic growth, South African teams competed at the AFL International Cup in 2002 and 2005, officially becoming AFL South Africa in 2004
• In February 2006, an historic tour by the Flying Boomerangs Indigenous Youth team heralded the start of a new era – South Africa returned to Australia to play the young Aboriginal team in February 2007 with games in the Northern Territory and WA including a curtain-raiser to the Aboriginal AllStars v Essendon in Darwin
• In 2007, the AFL significantly increased its investment in South Africa, earmarking the country as one if its priority International markets
• In April 07, during the inaugural AIS/AFL Academy U17 tour, the footyWILD brand was launched as ‘the new game that roars’ across the rainbow nation
• In May 07, ten local South Africans were employed from hundreds of hopefuls to take on the challenge of teaching this new game across three new Provinces in addition to the well established North West – Gauteng, Kwa Zulu Natal and the Western Cape all joined the fray
• In June 2007, Geelong College became the first ever school-based team to tour South Africa with the event documented by Channel 7 in Australia as “Footy’s Wild Frontier”
• Subiaco Football Club from the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) became the first State League Club to tour South Africa playing an internal game with South Africa National players included on each team in Potchefstroom
• To the end of 2007, 7500 footyWILD players were registered with an aim of 40,000 participants by end of 2010 under an ambitious development plan
• Four Professional AFL Clubs (Collingwood, Carlton, Fremantle and West Coats Eagles) are supporting a Province each through AFL Games, AFL Camps and proposed Talent Academies with all four having visited South Africa in the first 12 months of an initial 3 year agreement
• In Feb 2008 an AFL match was played at SuperSport Park, Centurion between Carlton and Fremantle in front of approximately 5000 fans
• The Western Cape is expected to host an AFL game in Feb 2009 between Collingwood and the West Coast Eagles, again at the magnificent Newlands Cricket Ground in the shadows of the iconic Table Mountain
• The South African ‘Lions’ National team was selected from the inaugural National Championships held in Potchefstroom in July 2008, marking the first time ever that four South African Provinces competed against each other for National honours