Locals play football the Australian way

Locals play football the Australian way

After the Jakarta Bintangs' first match against the Bali Geckos at Kuta in 1997, the local village head, on receiving payment for use of the village field, told both sides they were welcome to return to his village the next time they wanted to brawl.

That was 1997, when the pioneers of Australian Football here were just starting to promote the game locally to an audience confused over the apparent lack of rules. Now the sight of an oval-shaped sherrin football being booted around parks across the archipelago is no longer such a mystery.

Enthusiastic local crowds at West Java's picturesque Bintangs Park, carved out of a hillside at Pancawati in the foothills of Gunung Gede, have learned to appreciate football "the Australian way".

As have local players and supporters at the Bintangs' home of Cibubur, south of Jakarta, and at the Bali Geckos' home paddock, Lapangan Samudra in Kuta. Through development efforts generously sponsored by Kabelvision, a number of local Australian football stars have graduated from junior competitions in recent years to show their skills in senior international games with the Bintangs.

Thanks largely to the efforts of Bintangs veteran and Pancawati resident, Robert Baldwin -- the founding father of local AFL -- junior Australian football came to prominence in 2003 with the inaugural Kabelvision Challenge Cup. Five teams, featuring over 70 players from eight different nationalities, competed at Cibubur, with the Bogor Expatriate School Kangaroos running out 6-0-36 to 3-1-19 winners over the Pancawati Macan.

In 2004, the Kabelvision Jakarta Australian Football League (JAFL) was born, with teams from Jakarta and rural West Java competing at Cibubur in under 12s and under 15s competitions, run over six months.

It was the Cipare Cobras who handled the pressure better to win a tight grand final in the 2004 JAFL under 12s premiership, 6-8-44 to 4-8-32. In the under 15s final, played as a curtain raiser to the Bali Nines final at Kuta, the Pondok Cina Lions outplayed rivals the Depok Garudas 4-3-27 to 2-2-14.

The players were not overawed by the large crowd and long bus trek to Bali and put on an entertaining display of hard, running football. Lions' diminutive forward Ariyanto "Bombo" was a crowd favorite as best on ground, while the Garudas' Risky won player of the year and Adi Arifin the leading goal scorer in 2004.

This year witnessed the emergence of the Kabelvision West Java AFL (WeJAFL), with six local teams playing a round robin format over several months at Bintangs Park, Pancawati. The Pancawati Eagles led all day in July's grand final to steal the premiership in a local derby against the Pancawati Scorpions.

Despite a best-on-ground performance from Scorpions captain Effendi, the Eagles dominated the midfield to secure a comfortable three-goal victory, 11-16-82 to 9-10-64. Ubey, Entab, Ibah and Boneng were outstanding for the Eagles. These are among the names likely to feature in Bintangs squads in future Australian football internationals. -- JP/John Williams