Vryburg Junior League

By Phindile Khambule and Kabelo Seoka
22 November 2005
The Vryburg junior league has now finished. As expected things went very well and everyone was happy to be part of it. The players, coaches, umpires and league organizers worked hard to make sure the league was a success and as demonstrated by the standard of the games and the amount of fun the kids had it definitely was.

The Vryburg junior league had four teams who competing very hard, it showed they were well prepared but unfortunately only one team had to take the trophy home. Even though there was only one winner it was a great experience for all involved. This was the second junior league in Vryburg, we are planning that next year we will have a bigger and better junior league.

The following are the teams competed in the leagues:

1. Extreme Eagles

2. Western Bulldogs

3. Dikwena

4. Western Lake Deamons

The Extreme Eagles were the happy team for winning the league. “When I started preparing my team for the league, what was running on my mind was winning nothing else as every coach will wish. I imagined every day how my players would feel after defeating because they’ve been very dedicated and working hard”: said the coach of the winning team.

The Chairperson for AFL Vryburg will like to pass special thanks to the following people for being part of the league and for making it happen.

Team, Coaches, Umpires, Parents, The community, The municipality for helping with the field, AFL South Africa and all the supporters.

Junior Leagues

By Phindile Khambule
08 November 2005

Vryburg is running an U/13 league with four community based teams, local community volunteers coach them. Including the grand final the league is five weeks long. The grand final will be played on the weekend of November 11^th 2005 in the Huhudi Township. Who will be premiers? Will it be the Extreme Eagles, Dikwena or the Western Bulldogs?

If you are near Vryburg please grab your sunscreen, umbrella and enough water to watch football.

Ventersdorp has stated an eight week, six team U/13 league has been started. The league coordinators are contributing to the smooth running of the league. Visit the local sports grounds to watch the games from the Ventersdorp U/13 junior league. The grand final will be played in December 2005.

New Development

By Phindile Khambule
08 November 2005

 

Football has reached new communities. Residents in the villages of Morokweng, Schweizer-Reneke and Dithakong now play Australian football. All these communities are based in the Bophirima region, which is one of four regions of the North West Province. Football is fast becoming the people’s game and reaching the people who really want to play and get a kick out of life.

Australian Football is now an accredited sporting code with Maqwasie Hills Sports Association, which is responsible for many schools in the Schweizer-Reneke area.

 

If you want to play football in Morokweng, Dithakong and Schweizer-Reneke grab your sports attire and go kick a footy. If you want to contact those communities you can do it through AFLSA Office.

The following is the indication of where, when and who in communities visited.

 

Communities

Region

Contact Person

The Road Show

By Phindile Khambule
08 November 2005

The AFLSA Road Show was undertaken between October 23^rd 2005 and November 2^nd 2005 by July Machethe – Head Development Officer and Jack Arnold – Development Officer. Numerous communities where visited and received a lot of training in different footballs skills from administration, umpiring, coaching, training sessions, matches etc.

In total 11 communities were visited, about 700 kids were reached and about 50 community volunteers were involved in the training sessions and trained to take up football on their own.

It proved to be a worthwhile exercise doing the Road Show as communities responded well to the services that AFL South Africa is bringing to the communities. Community volunteers were also involved in helping to train the kids and given coaching tips. Continuous follow-ups need to be done by the development, coaching and umpiring staff from AFL South Africa.

A full report on the Road Show is available from AFL South Africa’s office on request.

AFLSA Road Show Master Schedule

Program

Dates Duration

Community

Time Duration

Activity

 

 

Two Aussies on the road with Jack and July

By Jack Arnold & July Machethe
08 November 2005

Jake and Andrew from Melbourne recently joined AFL South Africa development officers Jack and July on the ‘Aussies on the road program’. Tuesday November 1^st saw Jake and Andrew arrive early at AFL South Africa headquarters in Potchefstroom. A brief workshop covering what to expect whilst in the communities started the morning, then the car was packed and we were on the road to Ventersdorp, our first stop.

We arrived in Ventersdorp to find a hot day and lots of kids at a school waiting for us. After a short introduction we were straight into it, the four of us were taking the kids through some drills in kicking, marking and handballing. These kids were not new to footy so had some pretty good skills. After about an hour of skills it was time for a game, while the players were getting themselves organized we gave the umpires a quick refresher course. The game was played to a high standard despite the heat and the kids were still running around after 30 minutes.

Following the game there was many high fives and handshakes and of course the obligatory group photo before it was time to get some drinks and hit the road again. This time we were headed for the community of Itsoseng near the North West Province capital Mafikeng.

We had a senior game scheduled at the Itsoseng Stadium, with the heat (it was pushing the mid thirties) and the altitude it was always going to be hard. The game was a faced paced open affair as both teams only had eight players. The standard of the game was helped by the fact that there were five players who represented South Africa at the recent International Cup in Melbourne and three Australians playing.

We then hit the road, dodging donkeys, cows and goats on the way to the village of Ramatlabama near the border with Botswana. We arrived to find kids training on the dusty field, we continued with them till dark. The kids showed endless enthusiasm despite having only a dirt field to train on and limited equipment.

In the evening we visited a local tavern, this is something that very few foreign tourists visiting South Africa get to experience. Jake and Andrew showed the locals how to play pool, holding the table for quite a few games!

The next morning we made a leisurely start and headed for the mining town of Rustenburg. Again it was time for an experience many tourists wouldn’t get, a ride on a taxi. I dropped July, Jake and Andrew at the taxi rank whom then rode it to the township.

Whilst in Rustenburg we conducted a clinic at Retlakgona Primary School for approximately 100 kids from four different schools. After the clinic we organized a short game before hitting the road for Jo’burg.
On the way to Jo’burg we passed through the resort town of Hartbeespoort and checked out the Hartbeespoort Dam.

In the two days we visited four different communities, each different in their own way. I think the kids absolutely loved having some people from Australia coming and teaching them Australian Football. Jake and Andrew had an experience they will never forget, something quite different from that of the ‘normal’ tourist who visits South Africa.

If you are coming to South Africa and would like to be involved with the ‘Aussies on the road’ program please do not hesitate to contact us. We guarantee an experience like you have never had before.

Jake and Andrew will be putting their thoughts down on paper soon, keep checking this site for their thoughts and impressions of footy in South Africa.

ARA Be Your Best Rock Challenge Festival

Venue: Johannesburg, The Coca Cola Dome
Dates: 17^th – 20^th October 2005
Duration: 4 days.

By July Machethe
02 November 2005

In June this year the organizers of the ARA (Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use) Be Your Best Rock Challenge invited AFL South Africa to be part of this year’s event. We gladly accepted the offer to conduct Australian Football workshops for both primary and high school learners over four days.

There were 20 different organizations conducting workshops, these ranged from footy, to basketball, to drumming, making healthy choices and cheerleading. The Rock Challenge was divided into two parts, during the day the schools participated in workshops and rehearsed for their evening performances. In the evenings they performed their dance acts to a wide variety of different music. It was great to watch with lots of variety and movement on the stage.

AFL South Africa is expanding into Gauteng in the very near future and given that most of the participating schools are located in Gauteng this was a great opportunity to introduce Australian Football to the learners and educators.

 

On the morning of October 17^th we arrived at The Coca Cola Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg. We were all looking forward to the next days although we didn’t really know what to expect.

AFLSA Facilitators involved were:

1. July Machethe – Head Development Officer
2. Jack Arnold – Gauteng Development Officer
3. Phindile Khambule – Head of Umpiring
4. Benjamin Motuba – Assistant Gauteng Development Officer
5. Modise Serapelo – Rustenburg Community Development Officer

On the first two days we ran footy workshops for primary school learners, the third and fourth days were high school learners. Each day we ran 5 x 45-minutes workshops. The learners were shown a short video of Australian Football as an introduction then divided into four different groups, each learning a different skill. They were Kicking, Handballing, Marking and Umpiring, focusing mainly on goal umpiring. At the end we made a big circle and sang a song. This grabbed us a lot of attention and the learners could be heard singing the song throughout the day.

In total by the end of the festival we trained kids in margin of 1100 – 1200 in number both girls and boys and we had close to 40 teachers accompanying the kids, which helped to control them. We gathered as much contacts as possible and also gave our business cards to the school teaches including brochures about our game.

We received a great response from all schools, the learners were very keen to learn about Australian Football and they all want to see footy introduced in their schools. We had a 4 minutes DVD of Australian football showing on the 2 big screens in the Dome every breakfast, lunch and dinner. The kids just loved the video and reacted by cheering to what they saw – that was the moment we knew football would become one of South Africa’s crowd favorites sport.

At the end of the four days we were all tired, but happy as it had been a successful time for AFL South Africa and the learners alike. The producer of the event happened to be an Australian – Andrew Douglas. We presented him and the event manager – Kat Masike with a footy each and a certificate of appreciation that we hope they will hang on their wall in the office.

Special thanks to Kat Masike for the tremendous time she spent to plan us in. We definitely want to be involved next year when the ARA Be Your Best Rock Challenge visits nine cities including Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.

Be Your Best while kicking a footy!