Aussie rules making mark in ENB: Kelson

Sports

By JUNIOR UKAHA
AUSTRALIAN rules football is gaining momentum in East New Britain with students from various schools taking part in the sport.
Kayly Kelson, AFL’s East New Britain development officer, yesterday said the sport used to be popular in the province before the twin volcanic eruptions in 1994 but stopped being played following the disaster.
Kelson, however, said AFLPNG and the AFL were working on reviving the interest in the sport in the province with support from business houses.
“Our aim is to get the code of Aussie Rules football played throughout East New Britain,” Kelson said.
“We are excited to launch the Paradise Foods Rabaul Schools AFL competition,” he said.
“Rabaul was the home of AFL before the Tarvuvur eruption in 1994 and we want to revive the sport here,” Kelson said.
“This competition will engage the youth of Rabaul area in sport to keep them active on the weekends and away from anti-social behaviour,” he said.
Kelson said the sport was new to most students with rugby league and softball the dominant sports so the focus was for a safe, fun competition focused on skill and game-play learning, and promoting fair-play and teamwork.
He said AFL was an equal opportunity sport so they want to develop both male and female talents in the province. He said round one of the competition would be launched tomorrow morning (10am) at the Edmund Rice Vuvu Field.
“The competition will be played for five straight Saturdays,” Kelson said.
“The competing schools are Tavui, Volavolo, Pilapila, St. Leo’s and Malaguna primary schools,” he said. An extimated 400 students from the aforementioned schools will participate across the four age groups of Under-13 boys, U14 girls, U15 boys and U16 girls.