Women’s Australian Football/ O-Rules in Italy
In 2010, history was made as Ireland and Italy both formed women’s teams to take part in the inaugural women’s Euro Cup, an annual 9-a-side competition run by AFL Europe which is hosted in a different country each year. Highlights of the game can be seen on the AFL Europe’s YouTube channel:
Since then, women’s football has really taken off. Initially, the Italians tried to get larger squads together to compete in the 2011 inaugural International Cup Women’s Division, but due to a lack of funding, they were unable to attend. However, the money raised did not go to waste: Since then they have also taken the game overseas using a 6-a-side modified game called O-Rules. As it’s far easier to get a team together and organise games, O-Rules has been a great way to spread the love of Australian Football far and wide. And on the back of the determination and enthusiasm of the Italian girls, the game is now being played as far away as Bolivia and Argentina! More information about O-Rules can be found on the O-Rules website: http://www.orules.org/
The Bolivians even put together a team to take on the Italians in an international O-Rules game. The Bolivian captain, Sonia Fernandez Flores, gave up Italian eligibility to put together the Bolivian team. Many of the girls come from Italian women’s league team Milano Latinas, who are named that because many of the players are from South American countries. The game took place at Fontanafredda in Polcenigo and was won by the Italians 5.6(36) to 1.4(10)
But it’s not only the internationally that O-Rules has seen such action and development. The Italians are also developing the sport at grassroots local level, and there are now 4 teams across Italy, as well as the Lugano Bankers women’s team in neighbouring Switzerland. The Lugano team’s website is http://aussieruleslugano.ch/ and here is the link to their facebook page- http://on.fb.me/s3uz7K
The first inter-club women’s game took place in Milan in February 2011 at the Carraro Sports Centre, with two Milan based clubs, the Latinas and a new team, the Domes, playing each other in an O-Rules game. The game was eventually won by the new team 2.6(18) to 1.1(7) in a hard fought contest.
Also run from Italy is AFL-F, an organisation run by Peta Lowry from the Australia Italia Association, which supports both female football and other women involved in football such ad supporters, volunteers, wives and mums. AFL-F is still raising money to support AFL Italia Feminile and women’s footy worldwide through the sale of prints of two works by iconic Australian Indigenous artist Billy Doolan. If you are interested, please take a look at the AFL F website http://www.aflf.com.au/ More information can also be found on this blog: AFL F post http://bit.ly/ut4HFl and Billy Doolan Prints post http://bit.ly/rrDw8N
Currently, the four teams comepting in Italy are the Black Cats Polcenigo, Juliets Verona, Latinas Milano and the Domes Milano. If you are located in any of these cities and you’re interested in playing, get in touch with Daniela Scalia through the O-Rules website contact form: http://www.orules.org/contacts.html
