Adelaide-born Alex Rafalowicz is overseeing Colombian growth in AFLW
A hardcore Port Adelaide AFL fan is behind a historical moment for women’s sport in South America by issuing an Australian rules challenge to soccer-mad Colombians.
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A hardcore Port Adelaide AFL fan is behind a historical moment for women’s sport in South America when Adelaide-born Alex Rafalowicz issued an Australian rules challenge to soccer mad Colombians.
Now Rafalowicz has dreams of bringing the recently crowned AFLW champion Adelaide Crows to Bogotá after the Bogotá Bulldogs host the Denver Bulldogs, a US-based AFL team on May 18 in the capital of Colombia in an international fixture.
Rafalowicz, 33, recently played an integral part in Bogotá hosting South America’s first ever AFL women’s match as part of the Colombian three-team local Aussie rules league which started last year.
“They love soccer it’s their no. 1 sport for sure,’’ Rafalowicz said from Bogotá where he is the president of the Bogotá Bulldogs.
“But being Australian over here helps, it’s a positive among Colombians and it helps other things.
“We have league teams, the Bogotá Bullants, DC Aguilas and Bogotá Bombers.
“But we would love that to bring the Crows here.
“When we were in Adelaide we went to see the first Crows AFLW match at Thebarton Oval (2017), Erin Phllips is inspiring.
“We put an AFLW match on the big screen over here so they could see women playing the game and we explained the game to them live.
“That helped us recruit players.”
Rafalowicz moved to Bogotá with his Colombian-born wife Marta in 2017 before they were married in 2013.
“She’s a Colombian lawyer and had some really good job opportunities here and so I followed her over,’’ Rafalowicz said.
“I work in digital communications and I started a digital consulting firm with another Aussie that was here.”
Rafalowicz said the Bulldogs are also partnering with Colombian charity foundation Buen Punto, promoting AFL to children in state care.
About 30 Colombian children are engaging in the equivalent of AusKick programs.
The Bulldogs have received a grant from the Australian Embassy and its Direct Aid Programme to support its program with vulnerable young people and women.
The former Unley High School student said Colombians are really taking to Australia’s indigenous game.
“The game over here was started by a couple of other blokes in 2016 and when we moved back here in 2017 I joined the club, last year I got elected to be vice president and now president of the club,’’ Raf said
“We advertised on Facebook and Colombians started coming along, and some of them stepped up to help promote and engage more of their compatriots including women.
“This AFL competition all started with a Facebook post asking for players and 20 people initially turned up.
“There is a team in Santiago called the Santiago Saints and they said we’ll come up and play for the AFL championship of South America and in late 2016.
“That give the boys structure and something to aim for, we advertised on Facebook and Colombians started coming along.”
Originally published as Adelaide-born Alex Rafalowicz is overseeing Colombian growth in AFLW
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