Austrade's Tim Harcourt who worte the article

Last Friday, 25 September 2009, Tim Harcourt from Austrade had the following article, “Australia kicks on globally”, published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald about the role of footy overseas. The article also makes reference to the Vietnam Swans.

IN ONE of Australia’s great films, Gallipoli, there is a famous scene when the diggers play a game of Aussie rules by the pyramids. It’s Western Australia versus Victoria and, in a rare acting role, the great playwright David Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the film in collaboration with Peter Weir, plays a lanky Victorian ruckman whom the West Australians can’t budge.

It was a great scene, combining Australia’s brave digger spirit with our carefree love of sport and, in particular, our home-grown game Australian rules. The film, especially in this scene, was a great symbol of Australia and our values and the ”brand” that we show to the world.

As unusual as it was to see a game of Aussie rules in a desert setting, something similar did happen about 80 years later, when Collingwood played Adelaide in a pre-season NAB Cup game on a make-shift polo ground halfway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. This was not just an exhibition game, but a fair dinkum NAB Cup game, the first one played outside Australia.

The game was the brainchild of Australia’s (then) senior trade commissioner to the Middle East, Peter Linford, and the AFL to showcase the game to Dubai’s large expatriate Australian community and to help support the global strategies of the game’s sponsors. Given Collingwood’s relationship with Emirates and Adelaide’s links with Toyota, the Crows-Magpies duel was a perfect match.

The Vietnam Swans and Lao Elephants form a guard of hounour prior to the Craig Senger Tribute Match in Hanoi on 8 August 2009

But the big men fly not just in Dubai. In fact, in my travels as The Airport Economist, I have noticed a new phenomenon. Wherever there are Australian exporters, there are expatriates; and wherever there are expatriates, there is sport; and it’s often Aussie rules. For example, when I was in China, the Shanghai Tigers played the Beijing Bombers at China’s own MCG. In Hanoi, the Vietnam Swans played the Laos Elephants in a special match to raise funds for the Craig Senger Indonesian Memorial (Senger was an Austrade official and active member of the Jakarta Bintangs Aussie Rules team who was a victim of the Jakarta terrorist attacks this year).

In addition, this year the South American Aussie rules competition kicked off with a game between Brazil and Chile, with Austrade Sao Paulo’s Greg Wallis (who is a keen South Adelaide supporter) leading the charge. There have been strong expatriate leagues in Britain, the US and Europe as well for some time.

But it’s not just expatriates playing for fun; the AFL is organising matches around the world on a regular basis now. As well as the UAE, there are regular matches in South Africa, as there will soon be as many AFL footballers in South Africa as in Tasmania.

There are also plans for games in India (spearheaded by Peter Linford, now based in New Delhi) and in China as part of the Shanghai 2010 activities. In fact, Richmond and Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy now plays an important role as a global ambassador for the AFL and recently toured China with Ken Gannon to promote the activities for next year. This comes on the heels of a strong involvement by Melbourne in China with Ron Barassi, Max Walker and former Melbourne lord mayor John So doing their bit.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age published this article on 25 September 2009

Is this a plan for world domination by the AFL? Not at all. According to Gillon McLachlan, the AFL’s chief broadcasting and commercial officer, the AFL wants to grow international participation in the game, serve the Australian expatriate market and grow the game financially too among Australian and international business interests.

The financial side of the game is increasingly a global proposition. ”We need to support the global ambitions of our corporate sponsors and partners, and the international matches are an important part of this strategy,” says McLachlan. ”The international matches help us to showcase the game and build the Australian brand among potential foreign investors and sponsors and give our global Australian partners some good leverage in new markets.”

But McLachlan emphasises that the main focus of the AFL is on national development of the game. ”Our main focus is on being the national code, hence our work in NSW and Queensland and regional areas. But the international program is a good investment in the game’s development – particularly given the global focus of many Australian exporters.”

Of course, as well as the international business objectives, the game has a development objective. The work by the Fremantle Dockers in the townships of South Africa has helped reduce smoking and other anti-social activities. Sheedy, along with indigenous leader and Essendon legend Michael Long, has emphasised the strong indigenous participation in the game and taken that message offshore.

The Shanghai Tigers football club has raised funds for the Half the Sky foundation that helps Chinese orphanages. Football is, in a sense, part of Australia’s unofficial diplomatic efforts.

There are economic benefits to a whole range of football codes and other sports. Austrade’s Business Club Australia program leverages sporting events to help forge trade and investment links for Australian exporters and investors. As well as the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, the Melbourne Cup, the FINA swimming championships and the rugby world cups, BCA is involved with FIFA and the FFA in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and in the possible hosting by Australia of the World Cup in Australia in 2018 or 2022, and the Asian Cup in 2015.

There are obvious synergies between the world game and world trade and sporting events generate big bucks for Australia. Since the Sydney Olympics in 2000, BCA has generated $1.7 billion in trade and investment deals for the nation.

Sport, like a wonderful Australian film such as Gallipoli, is part of who we are and how the world sees us. And, ultimately, it can help us as Australians to engage with the world.

Tim Harcourt is the author of The Airport Economist. Thanks to Ken Gannon, David Matthews, Kevin Sheehan, Kevin Sheedy, Bill Kelty, George de Crespigny and Gillon McLachlan of the AFL, and Peter Linford, Ashley White and Tom Calder of Austrade for their assistance.