Is soccer closing the gap on Australian Rules Football? Star News Group’s Michael Esposito and Luke D’Anello analyse the battle between the two codes and the unique role the burgeoning western suburbs are playing in the war.
Junior footy numbers ‘disturbingly low’
MELBOURNE’S western suburbs have the lowest participation rate for Australian Rules Football in the state.
Western Region Football League CEO Bob Tregear described the rate kids are picking up a Sherrin as “disturbingly low”.
The most recent AFL census figures show that 16.5 per cent of 5-18-year-olds in the West play footy, along with and 1.94 per cent of adults.
This is in contrast to the junior average across metropolitan Melbourne which is 22.5 per cent while the senior average is 2.9 per cent.
“We don’t want to be the lowest, we’ve got to get up there and be at least among the average,” Tregear said.
The question is: why? The rise of soccer can be seen as a factor, with participation numbers growing steadily and the West identified as the second largest area where soccer is played in metropolitan Melbourne.
Tregear rebuffed suggestions soccer was closing in on footy’s mantle as the most popular sport in the West.
The WRFL alone has more than 6000 registered players. Add to that amateur league players and those in the West’s Essendon District league teams and it’s significantly more than the 5395 registered soccer players in the Western zone.
“Soccer is no doubt growing out here, just anecdotally you can see that but we try not to pay too much attention to the folklore that’s going around. We try to do everything based on evidence,” Tregear said.
“(The popularity of soccer) is a challenge maybe but never a threat. Challenges are good things, they keep you on your toes, and make you competitive.”
After the interleague program wraps up, club development and operations officer Tim Shellcot will lead the WRFL’s research into the factors contributing to the West’s low junior participation rate.
Tregear said the league was well aware of the anecdotal evidence – low socio-economic status, a large proportion of new migrant families unfamiliar with Aussie Rules, a comparatively higher number of itinerant public housing residents – but refused to accept them as barriers to boosting numbers.
In fact, he attributed some of the blame to the game’s administration.
“Perhaps there hasn’t been as much of a focus on grassroots development. I don’t mean what the AFL refers to as grassroots, I mean community club development, keeping clubs alive,” he said.
“There was a period where this league or the Footscray districts league seemed to take on any old club just to get the numbers up when really they should have been looking at quality.
“I think the fact is they haven’t given the attention to administrative detail they should have done over the years. They could be a bit behind some of the other regions in the metro area.”
Tregear said keeping clubs viable was critical to attracting juniors to footy. It seems like an obvious statement, but several clubs such as Kingsville, Seddon, and Altona Centrals have folded because of poor numbers, and with the recent rise in new families coming into the area these clubs may have been thriving now if they had been able to bide their time.
“Yarraville’s got plenty of juniors, even West Footscray’s starting to get some now. It’s a swing in the population pendulum. Eventually it comes back and that’s why you’ve got to hang on to your football clubs.”
Tregear said the league’s current number of 192 junior teams, which is 10 fewer than in 2007, was not good enough, particularly considering the population boom in the outer West.
The league had anticipated more junior teams this year but 22 nominated teams pulled out just before the season began, including 16 which pulled out after the fixture was released.
In-depth, qualitative studies were needed to get a handle on why junior participation has stagnated, according to Tregear.
“Tim Shellcot’s role will be about planning for next year and growth areas like Manor Lakes, Sanctuary Lakes, Burnside Heights and Toolern Vale,” he said.
“We don’t make any major changes based on hearsay and anecdotal stuff, we try and make it evidence-based.
“Right across the whole football industry we haven’t researched enough. Everybody thinks they know what makes the game tick but what they’re often relating to is how the game was when they were kids playing themselves. It’s not necessarily what it is today.”
Essendon District Football League general manager Marc Turri touched on another challenge facing footy – available space.
“In the growth corridors I can see demand really increasing, particularly in that five to 10 year period. In time there will also be a demand to increase facilities or increase size of facilities in the more established councils as well.
“In established areas where there’s no room to build residences they’re going to build up, so with the population growth you’re going to need that open park space.”
Williamstown – a glimpse of the future?
FOOTBALL Williamstown was formed last year in response to the alarming rate at which Williamstown-based football clubs were folding.
Legendary VFL umpire Bill Deller, who chairs the organisation, said little research was needed to see that Williamstown was in grave danger of having no recreational clubs.
“If you go back some years there were 10 open age sides at recreational standard. But now there’s one, and the last standing side is Williamstown CYMS,” Deller said.
“That was part of the motivation of forming Football Williamstown because even though Williamstown CYMS is 125 years old… we wouldn’t want that club to fall over because there would be nowhere for people in the city of Williamstown to play footy.”
Deller said the key to ensuring existing footy clubs remain viable in the West was to better promote the sport in schools.
“There needs to be campaigns in schools for a start because we have a lot of kids coming from families in the West that aren’t footy families. They’ve emigrated out here and so I guess it’s the schools that are very influential in the short term and we need to get those schools making footy available.
“I think the big clubs in the area need to be providing the right sort of promotion and resources to let those clubs do that.
“I don’t think this is something they can fix overnight because I don’t think we can convert 15-year-olds who have never been interested in the game. We’ve got to aim for the future and aim for the kids. I think it starts from the schools to Auskick.”
A recent survey of Williamstown-based primary schools, conducted by Williamstown Football Club, revealed a low conversion rate from Auskick to club footy.
According to the survey of 1252 students across 10 primary schools, 28 per cent of children had been to an Auskick clinic but only 15 per cent played for a club outside of school.
Soccer topped the list for the survey question asking children to nominate their three favourite sports. The world game was listed by almost 60 per cent of children, while Aussie Rules was second with just over 50 per cent of the vote.
Deller said the changing cultural landscape of the western suburbs has heightened the challenge for administrators to catch up to other areas in terms of participation.
“If you’ve grown up in countries were everyone played soccer and it’s a national sport and a worldwide sport … then that’s where you’re going to be looking,” he said.
“And so that is a huge challenge for people in the western suburbs to get footy back on the map. This isn’t going to change overnight but we need to start implementing some programs now.”
AFL Victoria’s development and planning manager Michael Daniher backed Williamstown Football Club’s findings that that Auskick-to-club conversion was low.
“While we’ve had some marginal growth in Auskick year on year, in the last couple of years the growth at junior clubs have been static, so we need to look at ways of providing more support to the Western Region Football League to be able to attract participants out of schools and out of Auskick in their junior clubs,” Daniher said.
AFL Victoria has developed programs with the Western Bulldogs to attract children from new migrant families, which began with the appointment of a multicultural development officer at the Bulldogs four years ago.
The Bulldogs now run a multicultural schools program in the West, hold an English as a Second Language tournament for secondary school students, and invite multicultural community groups to attend AFL games. Later this month, Bulldogs players will visit schools involved in the club’s multicultural program.
“The real challenge is to convert diverse multicultural groups from school programs into Auskick and into clubs,” Daniher said.
AFL Victoria is planning to introduce an “AFL 9s” competition over summer, which would give children a chance to play recreationally on a Sunday without the commitment of midweek training. It’s another community-based initiative aimed and converting non-traditional footy families to Aussie Rules.
While the unprecedented growth in the outer West was an obvious area to target, Daniher said it must not come at the expense of long-standing inner-city clubs.
“In traditional clubs like Braybrook where the demographic is changing, we need to look at different programs to engage those communities to come and try football,” he said.
Junior soccer outgrows number of venues
AUSTRALIAN soccer has been booming ever since John Aloisi converted a clutch penalty in the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in 2005.
But while participation rates continue to skyrocket, local soccer figures have stopped short of declaring the sport could one day usurp Australian Rules Football.
Football Federation Victoria (FFV) statistics reveal overall player registrations were up by 7.9 per cent last year.
Remarkably, overall female player registrations also rose by 22.1 per cent.
FFV data obtained by Star this week revealed the Western Zone – comprising of 34 clubs – has the second most player registrations of any sport in Victoria.
In 2007, 4346 players were registered in the Western Zone. Currently there are 5395 players officially connected to clubs.
While Australian Rules Football figures in the West have expressed concern over participation rates, several soccer clubs are bursting at the seams due to a lack of adequate facilities.
Statewide, junior player registrations went up by 9.7 per cent across Victoria last year.
The issue was first raised by Star last October when an FFV survey revealed clubs across the state had turned away more than 5000 players during 2010.
A lack of facilities continue to cause concern and demand has not eased.
Yarraville Glory president Jon Balakis said his club’s junior numbers had tripled in the last three years.
“The advantage that we have in soccer is that a lot of the mums want to take their kids to a non-contact sport,” he said.
“The advantage to us is that they’ll bring them to soccer. Then it’s up to us as coaches and as a club to make sure that the kids have fun.
“We also advertise we’re a family-oriented club with all different sorts of nationalities, which is also a big winner for us. If your foundation of juniors is ripe, your club’s laughing.”
Balakis believes soccer will not overtake footy as the most popular sport in the nation, but he is adamant the sport is making giant strides.
“Is it realistic? I don’t think so,” he said. “But let me tell you, soccer in Australia, in the next 10-15 years, will certainly give AFL a run for its money. That’s because we’ve seen the growth from the juniors.”
But Balakis said inadequate facilities were the biggest obstacle facing soccer.
“It seems to me that councils seem to be spending more money on AFL grounds than what they do in upgrading soccer grounds. If you have a look around, it shows.”
FFV president Nick Monteleone confirmed the issue extended to all clubs.
“We’ve got to work with local government to make sure we’ve got good facilities, good opportunities for kids, and we don’t turn people away,” he said.
“They’re (club facilities) all stretched and it’s the same song that’s being sung across Melbourne. One of the ways to (fix it) is make sure the sport’s co-ordinated. If you haven’t got enough in this club, is there room in another club? It’s about having a system to be able to manage that process.
“The other important factor is coping with demand and in one way the sport can do that, and it’s been done greatly with the assistance of both state and local government, is by the building artificial grounds.
“That can certainly take up much more use than a normal grass ground. If you’ve got an artificial pitch in a municipality, the amount of people that can use it would be four times as much as a normal grass pitch.”
Meanwhile, former Socceroo Joe Spiteri, who is affiliated with Werribee City and Point Cook soccer clubs, has first-hand knowledge of the problem.
Spiteri’s Soccer Pro Academy is also at capacity in most locations.
But he is adamant the sport could sneak up on footy in future years.
“I think with the A League competition continuing to better itself year in, year out, it is giving an avenue for junior players to have a viable stepping stone,” Spiteri said.
“As we all know, it’s the most played sport by juniors within Australia and, soccer being the game it is, there is no reason why it couldn’t (take over AFL).
“The big thing is unfortunately they’re unable to cope with the influx of juniors due to not having the facilities. They’d love to take in a lot more kids, but their facilities don’t allow them to.
“I know Werribee City unfortunately turn kids away and Point Cook have expanded to more kids this year, but they turn kids away as well.”
St Albans president Danny Jutrisa said his club’s junior program has grown by about 15 per cent each year for the last two years.
He said catering for different cultures was also a challenge for the sport.
“You’ve got multiple different cultures involved and trying to align them is a very difficult goal to achieve and, if they could do that, I’m sure through the record participation that soccer does get… you should eventually be able to see that through the national league.
“But in the short-term, I can’t see soccer overtaking AFL. It’s going to take at least 15 or 20 years I’d say, even longer, and it would be difficult to achieve.”
Jutrisa said soccer clubs do receive a “raw deal” compared to football clubs when it comes to facilities.
“I just look at our club and our facilities this year. We’re in the Premier League, yet we don’t have a grandstand and we don’t have lights that we can play under.”
Williamstown Soccer Club president Igor Zlateski has also witnessed rapid growth within the junior ranks at his club.
“Towards the end of 2008, we had roughly 70-80 juniors and now we have roughly 200-220,” he said.
“But I think the growth comes down to whether you have the facilities and, at the moment, it’s maxed out. I’ve been involved with soccer for about 20 years and I remember we used to have to plead with kids to come and play the game.”
He conceded that Australian Rules Football is “ingrained in the culture”.
“It will always be the number one sport.
“But the Socceroos, every four years, make this massive difference to this game by qualifying got the World Cup.
“You are not going to get 80,000 people watching Brisbane Roar playing Melbourne Victory unfortunately. It’s got to have the mass, and soccer doesn’t have the mass because it doesn’t have the media.”
FFV CEO Mark Rendell said the immediate challenge was to find more places for people to play the game.
“FFV will continue to work with government, clubs and local councils in an effort to provide our growing number of players with a quality football experience,” he said.
Last year’s FFV annual report stated 770 pitches were available Victoria-wide and another 18 were expected to be installed by 2012, while 32 per cent of councils believed soccer facilities were worse than other sports.
Given the encouraging participation rates, continued improvement of facilities will ensure soccer continues to go from strength to strength.
There might just be a moment, though, when key identities in Australian Rules Football – if they haven’t already – begin to look nervously over their shoulder.
The West at a glance:
Lowest football participation rate in Melbourne
Second highest number of registrations of all zones in Victoria
10 less WRFL junior teams than in 2007
1000 more soccer players than in 2007
The WRFL had 214 junior teams nominate for the 2011 season, but 22 pulled out just before the season began
Statewide:
Victorian soccer clubs turned away more than 5000 players due to a lack of grounds
Soccer junior player registrations went up by 9.7 per cent in 2010
