Kiwi international team breaking ground for Aussie Rules in NZ

Shane Leat is part of the NZ Aussie Rules team. Photo / Richard Robinson

Sports pinnacles come in all shapes and sizes. For members of New Zealand's Aussie Rules team such as West Auckland brewery worker Shane Leat, the International Cup in Melbourne is the peak of their career.

"This is as far as I will go in the sport," says the 20-year-old Leat, who spent a couple of years working for AFL New Zealand promoting Rules in schools.

"But I know the AFL wants the game to be seen alongside others like rugby, league, soccer and netball in New Zealand."

The national team will play in near obscurity when the two-week tournament kicks off in Melbourne today. The New Zealand Hawks - who include six Australian-based players - have paid $2500 each to take on 17 other countries including Ireland and Papua New Guinea, the favourites alongside the Kiwis.

Leat discovered Aussie Rules seven years ago and it became his favourite sport, although he continued to play rugby for Suburbs.

"I still watch rugby but it seems so slow with all the stoppages," he says.

"In AFL, you can run in all directions, the game never stops, and I loved the kicking from the moment I started playing."

Attracting more players is certainly among the goals for AFLNZ, which has four full-time staff. There are small leagues in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch but the plans aren't limited to growing the domestic scene. Tim Stevens, manager of the Hawks and an AFLNZ board member, says it is hoped Melbourne's St Kilda will increase the number of competition games they play in Wellington each season from one to three.

While St Kilda have broken new ground at Westpac Stadium the Hawthorn club backs AFLNZ, which is why the national team is called the Hawks.

Shem Tatupu, son of former Kiwi league forward Tony Tatupu, Kurt Weatherley from Hamilton BHS and Siope Ngata from Aorere College are signed to Hawthorn through the international scholarship/rookie programme. The plan is for New Zealand to become a more fertile recruitment ground for the AFL.

It is difficult for a newcomer to make an impact against well-established football codes. But Aussie Rules support and awareness has risen significantly via the KiwiKick schools initiative, a high performance programme and extensive TV coverage on free-to-air Sommet Sports, including six live games each week.

The big picture isn't an immediate concern for the New Zealand Hawks. They will be concentrating on making the International Cup final, a curtain-raiser to Hawthorn's match against Geelong at the famous MCG on August 23.

Most of the New Zealand players are too old to attract AFL clubs' attention but the squad does include 16-year-old Te Kopa Tipene-Thomas from Bay of Islands College, who captained a national junior team to Australia in April. Tipene-Thomas is among teenagers already tested under the eye of AFL scouts, and AFLNZ has secured funds to assist him make the team to Melbourne. But it is still easy for this sport to keep its feet on the ground. The Tipene-Thomas family will raffle a pig to help meet their share of the costs.

Stevens says: "We like to say we are very professional on a shoestring budget. We're certainly not about making outlandish claims or spruiking our game. We can't afford to lose credibility.

"But we do want good talent identification and provide clear pathways into the AFL. Apart from that, I think the best we can hope for is three AFL games in New Zealand a year and even that might take 10 years to achieve."