August 30, 2006 by Mike McFarlane
AFL Canada and The Nippon Australian Football League have formed an alliance to further the interests of Australian Football between the two countries.
The alliance will take the following form:
Promotional
AFL Canada and the Nippon Australian Football League (NAFL) will give each other promotional support on their respective websites. This helps to create more global awareness for both leagues.
Player Exchanges
Should a NAFL player need to travel to Canada for work or study then they could immediately become associated with an AFL Canada team and it would help them to assimilate into Canadian life faster by joining a club and making new friends and vice versa for AFL Canada players travelling to Japan. The NAFL are aware of many Canadians travelling to Japan to teach English, French or other work. So the NAFL can help them with accomodation and other things.
Travelling Teams
As per the USAFL and AFL Canada's invite, the NAFL will come to Vancouver, Canada next year for a three-way tournament against Canada and the USA. In return we would hope that in ensuing years or even as early as this year that an AFL Canada rep team or even just a local club looking for a holiday would visit Japan in the hope of forming a further relationship with the NAFL. The NAFL has access to cheap accommodation so putting the team(s) up would be no problem.
Experience Exchange
As both leagues are trying to promote a lesser known sport there will be many similar hurdles that we've had to overcome. We can share methods, technologies, ways of garnering sponsors, etc. to further enhance the development of the game.
Credibility
By linking more countries up around the world, the sport will gain greater credibility and perhaps even higher profile sponsorships. Both are necessary to help this sport gain greater recognition. As we all know that Australian Rules is the greatest game on earth. We just have to get the rest of the world to realise it.