‘Aussie Rules’ football comes to Indonesia
April 7th, 2008
(The Jakarta Post) The Jakarta Bintangs Australian Rules Football Club has launched a new program to develop “Aussie Rules” among young people in Jakarta with support from the Australian Government.
Former Australian Football League (AFL) player Chris Bandy, who has been living in Indonesia for several years, was chosen by the Australian government’s overseas aid program (AusAID) to lead a group of Indonesian coaches to set up regular training sessions and games in around 100 schools, involving more than 10,000 students and teachers in East and South Jakarta.
“I really think Indonesian children will love playing Australian Footy — it’s fast, skillful and a great team sport,” Bandy said in an e-mail statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
“I am looking forward to teaching local kids about our great game.”
Australian rules football is a version of rugby that was developed in Melbourne in 1858. It is played with a prolate spheroid ball, on large oval shaped fields, with four posts at each end. The inner pair of posts on each end are known as the goal posts, while the outer posts are known as the behind posts.
No more than 18 players of each team are permitted to be on the field at any time, with four interchange players on the bench, the primary aim of the game is to score by kicking the ball between the posts. The winners are the team who has the higher total score at the end of the match.
The one-year-training and games arrangement is part of AusAID’s Australian Youth Ambassador Program.
Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said, “The Australian Government is proud to support this initiative, which will provide a sporting outlet for Indonesian youth and promote our unique game in Indonesia.”
“Learning about this very popular part of Australian culture cannot help but strengthen the extensive people-to-people links which exist between our two countries,” said Farmer, who is also the patron of the Jakarta Bintangs.
Jakarta Bintangs’ spokesman Jason Moynihan told the Post that the Australia-Indonesia Institute, an Australian Government initiative, had given them a grant which would be used to provide training materials, equipment and wages for Indonesian coaches, helping to ensure the Bintangs can develop a network of local coaches to manage the long-term development of the game.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
Entry Filed under: World Tourism News
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