The Richmond Hill Wines Calgary Kookaburras have been busy building footy ties across Australia during the first few months of 2009. On separate trips, club representatives have liaised with footy movers and shakers in New South Wales and Victoria. By raising our profile in Australia, we hope to attract Australian clubs to tour Canada and build links that enable us to exchange players and coaches so that our footy development pathways are strengthened.
Sydney Women's Australian Football League Partnership
Kookaburras Vice President, Elise Botero, met with Sydney Women's AFL (SWAFL) delegate Lancelot Yu in March to establish a sister-league arrangement between the Alberta Footy Women's League and the SWAFL. We agreed to share development resources and to facilitate player exchanges for any Aussies and Canadians wishing to do a gap-year overseas whilst continuing with their footy. The agreement is a great opportunity for our players to develop their skills in a more-competitive league, while we'd love to host Sydney-based footy players travelling to Canada for work or play.
The SWAFL have posted information about the exchange program on their website.
Diamond Creek Football Club Partnership
Kookaburras President, Jake Anson, met with Diamond Creek Women's Football Club President Nicole Fisher during his trip to Victoria in April. The two clubs have agreed to a sister-club relationship with similar goals to the arrangement with the SWAFL. 'The Creekers' compete in the premier division of the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL), which is the highest-level of women's football in Australia. Jake presented Nicole with a Kookaburras' jersey and photo of our 2008 US Nationals winning side, and in return we received a signed Creekers jersey and club photo.Nicole serves on the board of the VWFL, and spoke enthusiastically of sending a side to play in Canada sometime in the future. We look forward to developing this idea further and, until then, partnering with Diamond Creek to further our development. To date, two VWFL players have played footy in Calgary (Vice-captain Claire Brown in 2007; Jo Constantino in 2008 - both of St. Albans Spurs) and '07-08 Kookaburra Meg Goodfellow trained with the Creekers during early 2009. We hope these are the first of many exchanges to follow.
