South Africa's wild about footy

IN A village four hours north of the South African town of Potchefstroom, asking a boy which AFL club he barracks for seems a little bizarre – even from the mouth of outlandish football luminary Kevin Sheedy.

More surprising was the response Sheedy got when he posed the question at a panel discussion.

"Well, I barrack for Essendon," the boy replied.

"Scotty Lucas has hurt his knee," Sheedy divulged.

"I know," the boy responded. "I follow Essendon every day. I watch it on the website."

The boy rattled off details about the team and the players, identifying with his role model Lucas through a similar playing style that favours shots at goal over handpassing.

The boy could have been from suburban Melbourne, until he described his passion for our game.

"It’s a beautiful game. It’s like a beautiful baby," he replied.

"It’s the whole game – the tackling, the running, the chasing. We can all use our hands, we can all kick goals."

Such a feeling speaks volumes about how footy has been received in South Africa.

It's literally gone wild.

In less than 18 months, Footy Wild – South Africa’s version of Auskick – has attracted almost 8000 participants and more than 500 volunteers to assist with running clinics.

AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan says the sport has been the first to move since the end of apartheid nearly 15 years ago.

And it has accommodated large participation numbers which aim to increase to 30,000 in the next two years.

"The difference between last year and this ... the number of volunteers there, we go to a centre and there’ll be 400 kids there but as we roll in, there’s 50 volunteers with the whole thing set out," Sheehan says.

Work stations foster the 'big five' skills of Footy Wild, which in translation promote an exciting brand of football.

Kicking is described as 'kicking a super goal', marking is 'taking a speccie' and handballing, 'using your hands to create'.

Defensive work translates to 'chase tackle an opponent' and evasive skills are learned through 'the blind turn'.

"This is like the elephant’s trunk – the handpass, how you swing the trunk from side-to-side is how you get used to punching the ball. They add that flavour to it," Sheehan explains.

"Everywhere you go they talk of the big five [animals of Africa]. It’s the whole way in which they communicate with the group."

Sheehan recalls a coaching clinic where Sheedy demonstrated the importance of the hands to hit targets, by handpassing a ball back and forth to one of the aspiring coaches.

The young African's precision didn't weaken as Sheedy got him to step further and further away.

"At 15 metres, this bloke is doing rocket handpasses which Sheedy invented 25 years ago, the back-spinning handpasses, as if he’d been playing league footy for 20 years," Sheehan says.

"It blew Sheedy away, the skill level of this guy that had just recently taken the game up."

Sheehan also witnessed the raw magic of the new recruits in a curtain raiser between two teams from Gauteng province, which preceded the clash between the AIS Academy and South Africa.

 A young man named Joseph Lenyego playing at centre half-back had the 500 people in the stands in raptures.

"This kid has taken three of the best marks you’ve ever seen. He went for another six or seven," Sheehan says.

"The crowd was roaring as he approached the ball, the pack coming. You could just see him line up – he just went straight up their backs. And that was just natural brilliant flair and ability.

"He’d hit the deck, he’d run away naturally and he even kicked it well and we were just fascinated."

Sheehan asked after Lenyego on a visit to his township the next day to learn that the match was the 17-year-old’s second game of footy.

A Footy Wild coach, he had learned the rules and skills from simply teaching them and kicking around with his pupils.

"In this second effort ever to play a game he’s taken these sensational grabs. That’s untapped talent," Sheehan notes.

"That kid could do most things in sport because he’s a natural sportsman – quick, loose-limbed, great hand-eye coordination.

"And then, importantly, soft hands – he had no problem grabbing our ball, which some of them have trouble tracking it."

When South Africa’s national side, the Lions, compete in the International Cup in Melbourne next month, players with Lenyego’s characteristics will be crucial.

But, as a long-term goal, Footy Wild has Sheehan and the game's development staff plain excited.

"We’re only scratching the surface here," he says.

"There’s got to be so many other kids just like that who would benefit from opportunities."