AFL moves in on rugby's elite breeding ground

FOR well over a century, Australian rugby union has relied heavily on private and independent schools to produce Wallaby stars.

FOR well over a century, Australian rugby union has relied heavily on the private and independent schools of NSW and Queensland to produce Wallaby stars of tomorrow. At these elite institutions, rugby union has always been unchallenged as the No 1 winter sport. While soccer is a popular alternative, rugby is unquestionably the main game.

But now there is a new kid on the private school block in the rugby-mad states. Next year, eight of Sydney's top private and independent schools, including Riverview, Cranbrook and Waverley, will participate in an AFL competition open to students in years 5, 6 and 7.

In what is being viewed in some circles as an audacious attack on rugby union's traditional breeding ground, the AFL competition will be played on Saturdays, putting it in direct competition with rugby and thus diluting the sport's base of junior participants.

Steve O'Donnell, sports master at Waverley College in Sydney's east, said the school had a strong sporting tradition and offering students a wide choice of co-curricular options was a high priority. "It is so important that we continue to offer students choice in which sport they want to pursue," Mr O'Donnell said.

"Approximately 10 per cent of our enrolments for Year 7 next year have nominated Aussie rules as their preferred winter sport, so we'd be crazy if we didn't play an active role in having AFL introduced at the school."

Tom Harley, general manager of AFL NSW/ACT and a former AFL premiership winning captain with Geelong, said the introduction of AFL at "rugby" schools shouldn't be viewed as a battle between the codes.

"We respect the schools' sporting traditions, but we certainly feel we should be part of the sporting curriculum," Mr Harley said. "We don't want to put ourselves in a battleground. We understand the sporting heritage of a number of these schools, and we're really grateful to be a part of it."

But against the backdrop of the recent introduction of second AFL teams in NSW and Queensland -- the Greater Western Sydney Giants and the Gold Coast Suns -- it's clear the AFL's incursion into Sydney's private schools is a key plank of its aggressive incursion into rugby's heartland.

An Australian Rugby Union spokesperson declined to comment on the AFL's northern push, other than to say: "We only care about rugby union; we're not interested in what the AFL is doing."

But the ARU has come in for some harsh criticism from the Reverend Chris Middleton, headmaster of St Aloysius College, which has long been a traditional rugby school. Mr Middleton noted that the AFL would run its new school competition, pay for half of the uniforms, help provide coaches and umpires, and pay for all competition grounds. "Rugby, despite its historic ties with schools, has a very poor record over recent years in communication with schools and with providing substantive support," Mr Middleton wrote in a newsletter to parents.

"It is as if schoolboy rugby is taken for granted. Both codes (rugby and soccer) have much to learn from the professionalism and energy of the AFL."

Whatever happens, Waverley student Nick Blakey, 12, is happy just to be able to play his first-choice sport. "Rugby is still the main game at Waverley, but maybe in a few years more boys might make the switch," he said yesterday as he kicked the Sherrin with his mates.