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