The Aussie way to play football...
By rights, seeing as they wear Bavaria’s colors of blue and white, the Munich Kangaroos should perhaps be known as the Bavarian Kangaroos. “Nah, mate. You got that wrong,” says Julian Kann, coach of Munich’s own Australian-rules football team, quickly dispelling the confusion. “The idea behind the colors is success. The Kangas (Kangaroos, a club in the premier Australian competition) wear blue and white and they were one of the most successful teams in the 1990s. Even though they only operated on a shoestring, it was their desire to win that propelled them to the top. We wanted to associate ourselves with that notion, as well as adopt an icon that immediately told Germans that this is an Australian game.”
Australian football, a unique, demanding, bone-rattling, kick-and-run game, has been played in Germany since 1994, when the Munich club was founded. In 1995, the club began competing regularly against the recently formed Frankfurt Redbacks, as well as teams from France and Denmark. Sporting codes reflect the society that creates them and, without too much hyperbole, Australian football can claim to be the most exotic code played on Germany’s sporting fields. The first point about the game is that it is the product of an ancient continent of almost unlimited empty expanses. As played in Australia, it is a two-hour game on an oval-shaped field 180 meters in length and 150 meters across the center. There is no offside and the ball can be moved in any direction by hand or foot, so players can and do traverse the entire length of the field constantly—with some completing up to a half marathon over the course of a game. Given the size of the field, it is no accident that a lackluster performance draws the jib from commentators about players having “gone missing.”
The other point is that “Aussie footy” is a lightning fast, highly athletic and high-scoring kick-and-run fest. Anyone who has seen Australians compete on a sporting field knows they tend to be ultra-competitive. Yet, when watching Australian football, you get the impression that, as a nation, they decided not enough testosterone could be expended in cricket, rugby, cycling, swimming or tennis. So, instead, they created a sport in which they could catch and kick a ball, as well as run, jump and pummel each other into the ground in a staggering variety of creative ways. Teams are made up of 18 players and, although full contact is permitted from the shoulders down, the players wear little more protection than a mouth guard.
Craig Freer, the 1.96-meter tall president of the Munich Kangaroos, admits Aussie footy has been adapted to the German environment. “There is no way you can find a relatively flat area that size in Munich—thank God!” said the 39-year-old, who still regularly holds down the full-forward position. “Back home, it is a young man’s game, particularly at the higher levels. It is rare for anyone to play beyond the age of 33 in the professional leagues. The stamina required and the relentless physical contact takes its toll. Here, on the other hand, it is entirely amateur and no one really goes in too hard. We have a good number of German locals and other expats attracted by the casual atmosphere of the club who enjoy the opportunity to throw themselves into the fray.”
Although only professional in Australia, the code is now played in England, Denmark, Canada, America and Ireland, as well as countries such as South Africa and New Zealand. Still only a free-time sport in Germany, the local competition is becoming increasingly organized. A national team has been competing since 1998, when the German Blitz came third in the Anzac Day Cup, an international tournament held in London. In 2003, a German-wide competition was finally created, which includes the Berlin Crocodiles, the Düsseldorf Lions and the Hamburg Dockers. The teams play each other twice during the six-month season before competing in the end-of-season playoffs.
According to coach Kann, who played the game at one of the elite levels in Australia, the German game is more about having a good time than intensity. “The youngest player in the competition is 17 years old, the oldest, 48—both play for Munich,” he says. “It’s fun just running around the park and booting the leather. A lot of Germans who try the game come to enjoy it as well. At first it seems bewildering because it’s fast and unstructured compared to soccer or American football. After they realize the patterns and freedom of the game, they find it liberating in terms of what they can do and where they can go.”
As played in Germany, the game may be relaxed—but not completely devoid of competition. Mention last year’s final’s defeat to long-term rivals Frankfurt, and Kann’s eyes spark fiercely: “We’re on top of the ladder now and we’re looking forward to this year’s final, that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.”
For more details, see kangaroos.aflg.de.