AFL opening doors for international ‘buddies’

Port Adelaide AFL club will next week launch an international student program.

20.8.18- Port Adelaide Football Club's China manager Andrew Hunter and player Ollie Wines with giant panda Fu Ni, at Adelaide Zoo. Port Adelaide has won Federal funding to take its Power Footy program to more Chinese schools (Sichuan this time). Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Port Adelaide AFL club will next week launch an international student program that will include inviting 50 international students to each of its games, linked to a “Buddy Program” under which club members will attend games with students and seek to develop friendships.

Andrew Hunter, Port Adelaide’s general manager of China engagement, said it was “a program designed to build a ­community of care around international students”.

The club “believes sport, with its centrality to Australian society, can be central to this community of care”, he said.

Mr Hunter said there were three core elements: providing simpler access to essential services, using sport to enrich the life of the international student, and providing internship opportunities to expand the choices of such students following graduation.

Port Adelaide has pioneered China involvement for five years, including through “hosting” a series of AFL games for points in Shanghai, where Port will play St Kilda on June 2 this year.

The games in China are associated, including through partnership with the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, with events to promote Australia as an attractive source of products and services, and as an investment target.

Last year, the University of Adelaide signed an agreement with the club which will offer internships and job opportunities in China. About 100 six-week positions will be available annually, to all students in the business school.

A five-year partnership also starts this year between Port Adelaide and Jincheng Group, a conglomerate based in Zhejiang province, to deliver weekly football lessons and digital material, bringing a program named Power Footy, launched in 2016, to a further 6000 school students in China.

An aim of the program is to help prepare students seeking to go on to educational institutions in Australia, introducing them to life here.

The new international student program is supported by a range of Australian companies and institutions.

Mr Hunter said international students, particularly Chinese students, might well not understand their legal rights, nor know where to go for help, potentially leaving them open to being taken advantage of. The program thus includes a legal services partner, DW Fox Tucker.

Mr Hunter said the club was also supporting “two important transitions in the life of a student — from high school graduation to university life in Australia, and from university graduation to working life”.

The opportunity for internships, he said, gave the international students an important opportunity to settle in to the workplace, whether in Australia or China, through a network of partners in both countries to provide internship opportunities.