West Australian Football

More than 100 children who recently migrated to Australia have been learning Aussie Rules football in a series of clinics provided by the Phoenix Perth Demons.

The clinics have been running as part of an in-school Auskick Centre at Parkwood Primary’s Intensive English Language Centre, enabling the children to access football and get a taste of Australian culture.

The children, who are mainly from Africa, Afghanistan, Burma and Thailand learnt basic footy skills such as kicking, marking and bouncing during the clinics which ran for six weeks between May and June.

Parkwood PS teacher Doug Millwood said many of the children had come from refugee camps and were still learning English, but quickly warmed to the new style of football.

“I was really pleased to see how quickly they learned to handball and to kick the ball. The boys are especially aware of Aussie Rules – they watch it on TV.”

Perth Demons District Manager Darren Solomon said the aim of the program was to get kids involved in Australian life and culture, as well as promote football to talented kids.

“We’re hoping that they’ve had a good experience and some of them will go on to join junior clubs and later go on to keep playing football throughout their lives and maybe even pass it on to their children,” he said.

“One of these kids may become a superstar down the track. But even if they just become fans and supporters of football in general, that’s great for them and for us and everyone involved.”

Smarter Than Smoking Development Manager Clint Degebrodt said the children had already demonstrated great football ability.

“In general they’ve got a fairly high level of skills, a very high level of energy and a love of physical activity. So Aussie Rules is definitely the game for these kids, and they’ve picked it up really quickly.

“Many of them learnt soccer in their home countries, but by the time we finished the Auskick program they had all picked their favorite AFL teams and were wearing the colours to school.”

This is the second time the program has been run at the school, and is likely to be back by popular demand next year, as teachers negotiate with the Demons for a third round of clinics.