Inside flag football booms in Aussie schools as it threatens to surpass traditional codes

Some of Australia’s traditional sporting codes are in a battle for players as American football mania sweeps the country and Gold Coast.

A silent battle is unfolding in schools right across the country, and it’s one Australia’s biggest sporting codes may not even know they’re losing.

The NFL’s quest for global domination is full steam ahead, and Australian primary school students are firmly in the sport’s crosshairs.

Year five and six students are trying out for their school flag football sides in unprecedented droves. Why? The lure of a trip to Florida for the national champions to compete at the 2025 NFL Flag International Championship.

The byproduct of the tantalising reward that no other school sport in the country can match, is tens of thousands of kids exposed to the sport, many of who will play and support it for years to come.

The national championships are set to be contested this Friday on the Gold Coast, comprised of 10 top teams that hail from every state and territory.

“You always say with junior sport you’re not playing for sheep stations but it kind of feels like we are playing for a sheep station,” said Matthew Ross, who is the flag football coach at Melbourne’s Kew Primary School, one of the 10 schools set to compete at this week’s national championships.

Flag football is shooting to ascendancy in Australian schools and overtaking prevalent Australian codes. Picture: Supplied/White Leaf Films.

“There’ll be a bit of emotion on the day for the kids because there’ll be a lot on the line. I think that is the reason why it’s becoming very popular, because there is this opportunity.”

Ross said that of his 150-strong year five and six cohort, 41 kids tried out for the flag football team.

“Parents mentioned how it was the first time their kids had been in a selection process where they missed the team, so for some of them it was confronting,” he said.

“I also coach cricket and we’re trying to pull a team together and we’re pulling teeth just to get kids to come down and play, there’s no carrot at the end.

“I think that’s what’s really powerful, a trip to the Gold Coast is a huge experience for the kids, they’ll have such a wonderful time, and the experience to get to the US for one of the teams will be unbelievable.”

Gold Coast school Varsity College celebrate the 2023 flag football national championships title. The school won the first two iterations of the event. Picture: Supplied.

Ross expects flag football to be a “big growth” sport.

“It’s different, the novelty of the belts and also the plays … my son mentioned that because there’s five kids on the field you feel like every snap you’re apart of the action,” Ross said.

“He also plays (Aussie rules) and there’s 18 on the field and you can catch a cold during a quarter where the ball comes nowhere near you.

“It’s like basketball, you’re more in the game because there’s less people on the field. Even if you’re not getting the ball you have to run a particular route and do your role, they might not have the ball but they’re helping the team succeed.

“We’re pretty keen to be involved (as a school), the kids are enjoying it but there’s also these opportunities which other sports aren’t providing.”

The Australian Capital Territory’s Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, who will also be competing at the national championships on Friday, had around 80 kids try out for their flag football side from a 200-strong cohort of year five and six students.

Ormeau Primary School were the southeast Queensland champions and will be flying the flag as the local Gold Coast side. Teacher Jonathan Frazer noted how the skills overlap “big time” from OzTag, which a number of his students play.

The 2023 flag football national championships. Picture: Supplied.

“We’ve got kids who play OzTag at a really high level, some play rugby league, there’s a few basketballers and a netballer and Aussie rules girl, all their skills blended nicely,” Frazer said.

Western Australia’s Herne Hill Primary School even has a dancer competing who is set apart by her ability to read the opposition’s hips and judge where they will run as a result.

Flag football is set to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and there are over 250 Australian schools in its flag program. The NFL expects the number of Australian students participating to quadruple in the coming year.

The Gold Coast is at the fore of the NFL’s Asia-Pacific expansion quest. This year it launched its groundbreaking academy at AB Paterson College in Arundel and hosted one of three open-invite underage combines at the school in hope of identifying the best talent across Australia and New Zealand.

Originally published as Inside flag football booms in Aussie schools as it threatens to surpass traditional codes