MORE WOMEN NEEDED FOR AUSSIE RULES
Club want more female players to create team
W HEN you think of Australia, you probably think of barbecues, sandy beaches and kangaroos. But there’s another phenomenon going on Down Under – and it’s already in Wales.
Combining the physicality of rugby and football, Australian rules football is the most watched sport in its home country – and has the fourth highest domestic attendance rate of any sport in the world.
Now its success is spreading, with a team in Cardiff setting up their own club.
The South Cardiff Panthers, who train at the Swalec Stadium on a Wednesday night, was set up in 2006 by an Australian.
Member James Gibson, 29, from Roath, Cardiff, said: “A guy from Adelaide set up the whole league. Now there are four teams in Wales.”
But the club are also trying to recruit more females for the only women’s Aussie rules club in Wales.
Social secretary Zoe John joined last summer and is one of three women now in the squad.
Because they lack numbers, the women’s team have had to join others for competitions – but they’re hoping to change that.
The 25-year-old from the Heath said: “I joined in August. I’m on an American football team and they tagged me on social media. It sounded like it was a lot more running and I needed to get my fitness up but once I started going and understanding it, you want to get into the game more, so I kept going.
“In October, after two months of training, we went in for the Euro Cup in Bordeaux but, as there are only three regular girls, we had to join up with Finland and Italy to become Team Wales.
“To be able to play with people you only just met the day before is an interesting experience!”
Now the women’s team are hoping to boost their numbers to around 15 ahead of the next Euro Cup. “There’s something different when you’re playing with people you consider to be your family,” Zoe said.
“It just makes the whole experience a bit more special.
“The club want to see the sport grow, and I think it will.”
Played on an oval-shaped field with two teams of 18 players, Australian rules football – dubbed Aussie rules – is a contact sport where teams have to try and score by kicking a eggshaped ball through goal posts.
The game starts with a centre bounce, and players have to move the ball down the field in order to try to score – by either running with it and bouncing it every 16 yards, using your fist to hit it forwards or kicking the ball.
If the kick is too high, players have to jump – known as a mark – and can even use opponents to make sure they catch the ball.
Goals kicked between the two posts are worth six points each. If you hit the post or the ball goes between the big post and the outer lower post, it’s worth one point, known as a behind.
There’s no offside rule, but there are positions for players, with players coming in all shapes and sizes.
Tackles have to be made between the shoulders and the knees, with teams playing four quarters of 20 minutes each, plus extra time which can be up to 10 minutes.
Eighteen teams in Australia play the sport professionally in the Australian Football League (AFL), each playing 22 regular games, with the top two teams making the much-anticipated Grand Final played every year in the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 90,000 fans.
For more information on the club, visit www.facebook. com/CardiffPanthersAFL