| History of the Game in the UK |
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The league was formed in 1989, with efforts from John Jelley and others seeing the formation of eight clubs for an inaugural season in 1990. The founding clubs were the London Hawks, West London Wildcats, North London Lions, Earls Court Kangaroos, Lea Valley Saints, Thames Valley Magpies and Wandsworth Demons, all of whom were based in or around London. There was also a club based in Leicester, the East Midland Eagles. Of the foundation teams, four still survive in West London, North London, Wimbledon (former London Hawks) and Wandsworth.
Over the years these clubs would be joined by others, with some clubs unfortunately folding but new ones forming from the ashes, meaning that club numbers fluctuated between six and ten. In an environment where large numbers of Australians could be both a blessing (in terms of experience and teaching ability) and a curse (in terms of new clubs outside London finding it difficult to compete against the Australian expat-based London clubs), the league in 2001 divided teams into two leagues. The first league was the London Premiership, where the powerful London clubs would continue under the same local-content regulations as previously (i.e. a minimum number of EU players who must be on the field at any time). Beneath the London Premiership the London Conference was established, where the teams could field their 'reserve' sides. The London Conference has greatly relaxed 'local content' rules, meaning that backpackers and other Australians can compete at a social level. In 2003, with new clubs being formed outside the capital and regional clubs still struggling against the larger numbers of Australians playing for the London sides, it was decided that clubs outside London would compete in a Regional Premiership. This included the Bristol Dockers, St Helens M In 2004, a fourth division of the BARFL appeared, with the Scottish Australian Rules Football League forming. In the inaugural season, three clubs played each other for the premiership, the Edinburgh Old Town Bloods, the Edinburgh Uni Body Snatchers and the Glasgow Sharks. In 2005 the first junior development programme, Aussie Rules Schools, commenced. The program, co-ordinated by the new development body Aussie Rules UK (AR:UK) was kicked off. This project initially saw 10 English schools adopt Aussie Rules as part of the school curriculum to combat obesity. Junior’s teams have since competed at the London Youth Games.
On September 17, 2006 history was made in Denmark when the England Dragonslayers took on the Denmark Vikings in Europe's first fully-fledged international junior Aussie Rules match. England claimed the King Canute Cup, with England 6.10(46) defeating Denmark 0.6(6). In May 2007 the first Women's Footy game was held and there is now a league with two teams. After much work 2007 saw the partnership of AR:UK and BARFL, with both organisations agreeing to work together to push Aussie Rules forward across the country. 2008 saw a new organisation formed, AFL:Britain, which has the remit of coordinating the efforts of all those working to promote or run Aussie Rules in the country. |
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