AFL and NRL greats join the crusade to get touch footy in the 2032 Games

The campaign to elevate touch football to Olympic status has been turbo-charged with the recruitment of two Australian sporting greats: NRL legend Brad Fittler and AFL Hall of Famer Marcus Ashcroft.

Two sporting greats have joined the crusade to deliver touch football into the Olympics at the 2032 Brisbane Games.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal AFL legend Marcus Ashcroft has beaten a field of 100 contenders to become the new CEO at Touch Football Australia, while NRL Hall of Famer Brad Fittler has accepted a role on the board.

Their heavyweight presence follows the recruitment of Australian Rugby League Commissioner and former Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones to the board last year.

The stunning appointments come as the NRL deepens the relationship with its non-contact cousin – boasting more than 700,000 participants across Australia – and drives the push to include touch as a new Olympic sport.

“The big thing about the game is the ability for it to be played by men and women, boys and girls, and from ages 6 to 80,” said Ashcroft, the first Queenslander to surpass 300 games in the AFL as a 15-season veteran with the Brisbane Bears and Brisbane Lions.

AFL great Marcus Ashcroft (left) and NRL legend Brad Fittler (right) with touch Football players Pia Nathanael and Brody Ellis. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Going forward, I’m passionate about making a difference and, in conjunction with the NRL, growing this game further.

“That willingness and buy-in from the likes of (ARL chairman) Peter V’landys, who is one of the great sporting administrators, and (NRL CEO) Andrew Abdo will help us make things happen. It would be great to see touch in the Olympic Games.”

AFL legend Marcus Ashcroft with son Levi. Picture: Getty Images

The Telegraph reported exclusively earlier this month on NRL plans to launch touch into the Brisbane Games, with V’Landys saying: “For the normal person in Australia, the hardworking people of Australia, there’s got to be some form of rugby league there.”

Fittler, who won grand finals with the Panthers and Roosters, captained and then coached the NSW Origin team, led the Kangaroos in 25 Tests, and was acclaimed as the world’s best player in 2000, is excited about his first board appointment.

“Touch is a sport you can play all your life and there should be recognition for what it does for communities, how good it is for health,” he said.

“We’re going through a bit of a health epidemic, so a sport like touch makes a real contribution.

“Looking to promote it to an Olympic level is a fantastic idea.”

Brad Fittler in his playing days with the Roosters. Picture: Mark Evans

Fittler said a raft of past and present NRL stars, including Benji Marshall, Shaun Johnson, Mitch Moylan, Nicho Hynes and Scott Drinkwater, were national touch representatives.

“And pretty much every NRLW player has come through touch footy,” he added.

“It’s become its own game with its own set of skills, and it’s now about how you take it to the next level.”

While Ashcroft won three premierships with the Lions before retiring in 2003, played for Australia against Ireland in International rules, and holds legend status in the Queensland Football Hall of Fame, he was also a teenage rugby league and touch player.

Raised on the Gold Coast, he played league in parallel with Australian Rules football until accepting his first professional contract at the age of 17.

“I went to Merrimac High, a rugby league school … played on the wing and fullback,” he said. “I was also a mad Maroons (Origin) supporter.”

Ashcroft’s son Will won the Norm Smith Medal in Brisbane’s AFL grand final victory over the Sydney Swans last year. Another son Levi was drafted to the Lions in 2024 and daughter Lucy has just been selected in the Brisbane AFLW academy.

Originally published as AFL and NRL greats join the crusade to get touch footy in the 2032 Games