Australia

APY League footballers return to the field after competition suspended twice


Organisers of the country’s most remote and distance-challenged football league say the 2021 season is shaping up to be its best ever.

Each weekend, teams make vast pilgrimages across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and parts of the Northern Territory to play in the APY League.

The league was suspended in 2018 because of community violence spilling into football matches, then made a triumphant and safe return in 2019 only to be cancelled again last year because of COVID-19.

The SANFL’s Shawn Ford, who co-ordinates the APY League, said improvements made in 2019, including a new code of conduct and better communication with teams, were continuing to help prevent violence.

“This year is shaping up to be even better [than 2019],” Mr Ford said.

“We can actually get to games now and these guys know what they should be wearing and how they should be behaving. And things aren’t all higgledy piggledy — there are set times for games and all of those sorts of bits and pieces that flow with it.”

Shawn Ford says crowd numbers are up and violent incidents have stopped.(

Landline: Patrick Martin

)

The league’s following has also increased since its return in 2021.

“The crowds during the week have been comparable to our most recent grand final in 2019,” Mr Ford said.

Expenses a growing challenge

AFL is enormously popular on the APY Lands and in Central Australia, and long, weekend round trips — sometimes of more than 1,000 kilometres — do not put players off.

“We had the Mutitjulu team play their first two games of the season as away games and they travelled the distance of Adelaide to Sydney for two away games in the first two weeks,” Mr Ford said.

An aerial view of the red dirt oval at Amata.
The dirt oval at Amata is one of nine grounds spread over 200,000 square kilometres.(

ABC News: Carl Saville

)

The long-distance driving on unsealed roads is one factor that makes the APY League extremely costly to run.

“When we’re dealing with fuel costs out here they’re at $2.20 a litre,” Mr Ford said.

“It’s huge travel, huge commitment by the players, and something that we’re certainly appreciative of.”

Discovering remote talent

Like many outback competitions, the APY League harbours exceptional talent in its 10 teams.

“The potential out here is enormous, as you can imagine,” Mr Ford said.

“We’ve got a rep team heading down to Adelaide in early July. They’ll play on Adelaide oval. 

“It’ll be under 18s, so the perfect age for the AFL to have a look at.”

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Play Video. Duration: 8 minutes 54 seconds

The most remote league in Aussie Rules back in the game.(Landline)



Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button