AFLPoland
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Gather round bretherin, and let me regale you with the story of Australian Football in Poland, featuring myself and MoscowHawk
It all started way back in 2015 when an Aussie by the name of Gareth relocated from Melbourne to a central Polish city by the name of Bydgoszcz. He, along with a British English teacher started to have a kick and tried to form a team. They got their hands on some old kit from Geelong, and named the team the 'Bydgoszcz Wildcats'. Unfortunately, after a few years of trying, it just didn't take off and getting people to have a kick just didn't work.
It's at this point that I should tell you a bit about myself. I go by the name of Phil, Pfil to those who know me well, thanks to the fact that there's not a Pole who seems to know how to spell my name properly. I relocated from Melbourne (Croydon), to Warsaw, Poland in early 2016. My ex-grirlfriend is Polish. I was a welder back in oz and it was more of a job than a career. I met my ex at a heavy metal festival in Germany. We stayed in contact for a few years after we met, and then after 'dating' online as best you can for a few months, I decided to up and leave and see what I could do for myself in Poland.
I played from U11s to U17s for the South Croydon Bulldogs but gave it up for reasons I can't remember. I fell out of love with the game in my teens and early 20s, but I remember watching one of Michael Hurley's first games against Hawthorn - he booted 4 goals and denied the Hawks a place in the 2009 finals, right after their 2008 premiership. That performance single-handedly reignited my passion for AFL.
I moved here with AFL being a 'nice to have' here. As the relationship with the Mrs got rougher, I started watching AFL a bit more and got into it some more. It was about this time that I got in contact with the guys from Bydgoszcz to try and plan something. As luck would have it, Gareth was a few days away from packing up and leaving, going back to Australia. He told me to come meet him at Warsaw airport and he's give me all his training gear. I went, met him, got an Ikea bag full of cones, witches hats, socks, a shitty old pair of boots and a few Geelong tops. He also gave me ownership of the AFL Poland Facebook page.
I remember heading home from the airport and thinking 'I'm responsible for AFL in Poland now'. When I got home, it was with insane excitement that I said that same thing to the girlfriend, to which she replied 'Great, where are we going to store this shit'.
Anyway, a few months later we split up
Not long before we split up, I got in contact with a few people who had messaged the Facebook page who wanted to do something in Warsaw. I had met MoscowHawk a few months earlier, who had just relocated here from, believe it or not, Mosow (we actually met at a Hilltop Hoods concert here in Warsaw). We organised the first 'training' here in Warsaw.
It was a motley bunch of 3 Aussies, one of which lived in Switzerland, a Pole and an American. After what was literally a few kicks, we went to the pub. Naturally. Here, we discussed that we might be on to something here. We delegated jobs (marketing, getting equipment, fields, etc) and got to work. Over winter, we 'trained' indoors on a basketball court and some spring time, we had a few more blokes.
It was at this point that we decided that our short term goal was to get a Polish team to the Eurocup, the annual 9-a-side European championships held by AFL Europe.
We got to work getting more people and getting good. Training once a week, and getting people fit. When it came to designing a kit, you bet your ass we used Big Footy. We ended up using our own design, but used the logo that magpienato has designed. Fwiw, you can check out the competition here.
Just before leaving for the Eurocup, we had a captian's run. Hired a field and got all our friends and family to come down and watch us play a scratch match against a few guys who weren't coming with us to Sweden.
This was a huge move, as it made the wider community aware of the game and that there's a national team that's going to represent the country abroad.
The 2019 Eurocup was held in Norrtälje, Sweden. We managed to take a team that was about 75% Polish and 25% Aussies - in your first year, AFL Europe gives you concessions to have a few Aussies on the field to make sure your game is competitive.
We got our asses handed to us in each and every game, but without a doubt, every single player left every single morcel of energy on the field that day. It was bloody brilliant. I can't remember too much about the day, but I'll do my best to recall the results as I know there's a few of you who live for this kinda stuff:
First game was against the Netherlands. We came out absolutely roaring and scared the bejesus out of them. We played really aggressive, borderline dirty - our Polish guys simply didn't know anything other than sling tackles and late bumps. Proud to say that I myself kicked the first goal for the Polish Devils. Alas, we didn't win the first game. Second game was against Israel. They were really physical and fit and got ahead of us early. A bit of shit talking rattled our guys and got in their heads. But it was a great example of footy also being a mental sport. We lost that one, as well as the next game against England. Scotland, Finland and Austria were out last games of the day and we had nothing left in the tank by then.
Here's out game against England that...well, England won the tourney of the day, and they ran rings around us:
But, after this, it's safe to say that guy guys were absolutely hooked. In the above photo of the team, all but 3 are still involved. One backed out because of family, another is a bit of a shit bloke and left, and the other moved back to Australia.
The rest of 2020, we played a friendly tournament in Tallinn, Estonia, against 2 Russian teams, Helsinki and the Norrtälje Dockers.
Yes, playing on astroturf is horrible, especially when it's -3 degrees (hence the beanies and leggings).
2019 wound up with us deciding that the Eurocup will each and every year, be our ultimate goal. The next goal was to establish local Polish teams and create a domestic Polish league.
We had generously been given some kit from Whitefriars college, which we turned into one team. Originally called the 'Duży W' (Big W in Polish), we changed the name to the Warsaw Boars. Not long after, we were gifted some old tops from the South Belgrave Saints. We then named our second Warsaw team the Warsaw Saints. The name has since been changed to the Warsaw Bison.
At this point, we had about 20 to 25 players in Warsaw. It's important to remember that we play 9 a side, due to the fact that Cricket pitches simply do not exist in continental Europe. So 25 blokes is ultimately 2 teams. We all train as one group, but at the start of each year, we draft the Warsaw players onto one team, and then once a month we have the Warsaw Derby - Boars vs Bison. The final derby of the year is called the Syrenka Cup, or Mermaid Cup, owing to the fact that the mascot of Warsaw is a mermaid.
In late 2019, we were building a bit of interest in a Polish city in the south west by the name of Wrocław (pronounced Vrots-wav). An Aussie who had lived in London for like 15 years had just relocated there with his Polish wife. He'd played for the Wandsworth Demons in the UK and was keen to get something started there. Literally in a matter of months, we had the first team outside of Warsaw formed, the Wrocław Lions (named after the Lion that's on their coat of arms)
Wrocław (Facebook page here) is made up of Poles, Aussies, Kiwi's, Moroccan's, Indians, Ukranians, Welsh - to say they're diverse is an understatement. That being said, they've come a long way, and in fact won their debut tournament in late 2020. Wrocław is a huge city, and we're going to double down next year and try and get more players into their ranks. The stronger their team is, the stronger AFL Poland is.
In early 2020, I got a Facebook message from a bloke in a small Polish city called Nysa (Team Facebook page here). He was asking to buy some balls and told me that in Springtime, he would have a team for us. To say I was floored is an understatement. They got their balls, and formed a team. At the same event that Wrocław won, Fort Nysa made its debut. The entire team was 100% Polish, owing to the fact that the guy who started the team is Polish - he had fallen in love with AFL a while ago, and being the resourceful bloke he is, got a few mates together, got in contact with some local soccer clubs and got fields to use, got people involved, and grew like absolute wild fire. Seeing the Nysa blokes, who, by the way, hardly speak any English, take to the game as well as they have, has truly blown my mind.
Safe to say that the earlier mentioned Europcup didn't happen in 2020. We had our own tournament to replace it, made up of the Boars, Bisons, Nysa and Lions. This is the tournament that Nysa debuted in and that Wrocław won.
That was 2020. At the start of 2021, we were unsure if there was going to be a Eurocup (was to be held in Sterling, Scotland this year). We planned as if there was going to be, and planned to create the strongest possible 100% Polish team we could.
Friendly tournaments both inside Poland and outside (Against the Prague Dragons, Dresden Wolves and Berlin Crocs) helped us all improve when we could travel. The monthly Boars v Bisons games helped our players learn basic stuff like leading, kicking to advantage, but also finer points like kicking longer, safer tackles and switching play. Nysa and Wrocław are relatively close, so they played each other a fair bit, and all teams travelled to each other and played a whole lot of footy.
As it would happen, the Eurocup in Scotland was called off. It was at this point that we decided to have our own 'national' tournament with all Polish teams, where we'd have selectors that pick the best Polish players. These Polish players would make up the 2021 Polish Devils, who would then play at a friendly international tournament in Vienna, against Vienna, Graz, Prague and Budapest.
This selection tournament (called the Festival of Football) was held in Nysa, and Prague were a part of it. And it was a huge, huge day of the best footy I've ever seen played in Poland.
Prague won the day, but the level of skill showed by our Polish players was next-level since the last national tournament.
After this, we had our short list of Polish boys who were to make up the 2021 Polish Devils. And here they are in all their glory:
In Vienna, we managed to beat Budapest in our first game. Vienna got into our heads and we, unfortunately, lost that one. The game against Graz we also managed to win by a few goals, but the game of the day was Poland vs Prague. It's worth mentioning that on the day, we were the only team that was 100% localised. That is, not one aussie. All the other teams were local clubs, but we went to the extra effort of picking a 100% Polish team so that we could see at what level Polish AFL is at. And it is at a very, very good level.
Prague is made up of Czechs, but most of the team are Aussies or Irish students who have played Gaelic their whole life. They're all bloody brilliant teams, but Prague managed to beat us. With just 5 minutes left, we were 3 points up and it took a few Polish mistakes and some deep digging by the Czechs to get that last goal and win the day by 3 points. All in attendance backed up how well the Polish guys played.
Highlights of the game from Umpire-cam:
I also want to bring a little attention to the Budapest Bats - they've played 4 games now, and were started by a 14-year-old Aussie/Hungarian bloke living in Budapest. They're coming along in leaps and bounds and are worth keeping an eye on for those of you who froth at the ideas of International AFL.
So 2022 for AFL Poland? Certainly hoping that we're able to have the Eurocup in Scotland, where we'll take the Devils. We've got teams emerging in Silesia (which is more of a state than a city), Krakow and Lublin. When they're up and running, we'll have a total of 7 teams in Poland with over 85 paying members.
Our goals are to help those teams get up and running, secure a fixture, help get umpires and coaches trained up, but also create content in Polish. You have no idea how hard it is to try and teach a speccy or translate 'holding the ball' into Polish.
This is a whopper of a post and I am 100% sure that I've skimmed over a lot of stuff that may be of interest to you. I'm a pretty open book and happy to share how we've done things with anyone, within reason.
Lastly, big thanks to the BigFooty forums - MoscowHawk regularly comes here to help get logos and kit designed by here, and seeing how some of you guys express an interest in what we're doing - yeah, that really makes it worthwhile. To see that people are not only aware, but interested, in seeing the game of AFL grow abroad, that's what keeps the gears turning.
It all started way back in 2015 when an Aussie by the name of Gareth relocated from Melbourne to a central Polish city by the name of Bydgoszcz. He, along with a British English teacher started to have a kick and tried to form a team. They got their hands on some old kit from Geelong, and named the team the 'Bydgoszcz Wildcats'. Unfortunately, after a few years of trying, it just didn't take off and getting people to have a kick just didn't work.
It's at this point that I should tell you a bit about myself. I go by the name of Phil, Pfil to those who know me well, thanks to the fact that there's not a Pole who seems to know how to spell my name properly. I relocated from Melbourne (Croydon), to Warsaw, Poland in early 2016. My ex-grirlfriend is Polish. I was a welder back in oz and it was more of a job than a career. I met my ex at a heavy metal festival in Germany. We stayed in contact for a few years after we met, and then after 'dating' online as best you can for a few months, I decided to up and leave and see what I could do for myself in Poland.
I played from U11s to U17s for the South Croydon Bulldogs but gave it up for reasons I can't remember. I fell out of love with the game in my teens and early 20s, but I remember watching one of Michael Hurley's first games against Hawthorn - he booted 4 goals and denied the Hawks a place in the 2009 finals, right after their 2008 premiership. That performance single-handedly reignited my passion for AFL.
I moved here with AFL being a 'nice to have' here. As the relationship with the Mrs got rougher, I started watching AFL a bit more and got into it some more. It was about this time that I got in contact with the guys from Bydgoszcz to try and plan something. As luck would have it, Gareth was a few days away from packing up and leaving, going back to Australia. He told me to come meet him at Warsaw airport and he's give me all his training gear. I went, met him, got an Ikea bag full of cones, witches hats, socks, a shitty old pair of boots and a few Geelong tops. He also gave me ownership of the AFL Poland Facebook page.
I remember heading home from the airport and thinking 'I'm responsible for AFL in Poland now'. When I got home, it was with insane excitement that I said that same thing to the girlfriend, to which she replied 'Great, where are we going to store this shit'.
Anyway, a few months later we split up
Not long before we split up, I got in contact with a few people who had messaged the Facebook page who wanted to do something in Warsaw. I had met MoscowHawk a few months earlier, who had just relocated here from, believe it or not, Mosow (we actually met at a Hilltop Hoods concert here in Warsaw). We organised the first 'training' here in Warsaw.
It was a motley bunch of 3 Aussies, one of which lived in Switzerland, a Pole and an American. After what was literally a few kicks, we went to the pub. Naturally. Here, we discussed that we might be on to something here. We delegated jobs (marketing, getting equipment, fields, etc) and got to work. Over winter, we 'trained' indoors on a basketball court and some spring time, we had a few more blokes.
It was at this point that we decided that our short term goal was to get a Polish team to the Eurocup, the annual 9-a-side European championships held by AFL Europe.
We got to work getting more people and getting good. Training once a week, and getting people fit. When it came to designing a kit, you bet your ass we used Big Footy. We ended up using our own design, but used the logo that magpienato has designed. Fwiw, you can check out the competition here.
Just before leaving for the Eurocup, we had a captian's run. Hired a field and got all our friends and family to come down and watch us play a scratch match against a few guys who weren't coming with us to Sweden.
This was a huge move, as it made the wider community aware of the game and that there's a national team that's going to represent the country abroad.
The 2019 Eurocup was held in Norrtälje, Sweden. We managed to take a team that was about 75% Polish and 25% Aussies - in your first year, AFL Europe gives you concessions to have a few Aussies on the field to make sure your game is competitive.
We got our asses handed to us in each and every game, but without a doubt, every single player left every single morcel of energy on the field that day. It was bloody brilliant. I can't remember too much about the day, but I'll do my best to recall the results as I know there's a few of you who live for this kinda stuff:
First game was against the Netherlands. We came out absolutely roaring and scared the bejesus out of them. We played really aggressive, borderline dirty - our Polish guys simply didn't know anything other than sling tackles and late bumps. Proud to say that I myself kicked the first goal for the Polish Devils. Alas, we didn't win the first game. Second game was against Israel. They were really physical and fit and got ahead of us early. A bit of shit talking rattled our guys and got in their heads. But it was a great example of footy also being a mental sport. We lost that one, as well as the next game against England. Scotland, Finland and Austria were out last games of the day and we had nothing left in the tank by then.
Here's out game against England that...well, England won the tourney of the day, and they ran rings around us:
But, after this, it's safe to say that guy guys were absolutely hooked. In the above photo of the team, all but 3 are still involved. One backed out because of family, another is a bit of a shit bloke and left, and the other moved back to Australia.
The rest of 2020, we played a friendly tournament in Tallinn, Estonia, against 2 Russian teams, Helsinki and the Norrtälje Dockers.
Yes, playing on astroturf is horrible, especially when it's -3 degrees (hence the beanies and leggings).
2019 wound up with us deciding that the Eurocup will each and every year, be our ultimate goal. The next goal was to establish local Polish teams and create a domestic Polish league.
We had generously been given some kit from Whitefriars college, which we turned into one team. Originally called the 'Duży W' (Big W in Polish), we changed the name to the Warsaw Boars. Not long after, we were gifted some old tops from the South Belgrave Saints. We then named our second Warsaw team the Warsaw Saints. The name has since been changed to the Warsaw Bison.
At this point, we had about 20 to 25 players in Warsaw. It's important to remember that we play 9 a side, due to the fact that Cricket pitches simply do not exist in continental Europe. So 25 blokes is ultimately 2 teams. We all train as one group, but at the start of each year, we draft the Warsaw players onto one team, and then once a month we have the Warsaw Derby - Boars vs Bison. The final derby of the year is called the Syrenka Cup, or Mermaid Cup, owing to the fact that the mascot of Warsaw is a mermaid.
In late 2019, we were building a bit of interest in a Polish city in the south west by the name of Wrocław (pronounced Vrots-wav). An Aussie who had lived in London for like 15 years had just relocated there with his Polish wife. He'd played for the Wandsworth Demons in the UK and was keen to get something started there. Literally in a matter of months, we had the first team outside of Warsaw formed, the Wrocław Lions (named after the Lion that's on their coat of arms)
Wrocław (Facebook page here) is made up of Poles, Aussies, Kiwi's, Moroccan's, Indians, Ukranians, Welsh - to say they're diverse is an understatement. That being said, they've come a long way, and in fact won their debut tournament in late 2020. Wrocław is a huge city, and we're going to double down next year and try and get more players into their ranks. The stronger their team is, the stronger AFL Poland is.
In early 2020, I got a Facebook message from a bloke in a small Polish city called Nysa (Team Facebook page here). He was asking to buy some balls and told me that in Springtime, he would have a team for us. To say I was floored is an understatement. They got their balls, and formed a team. At the same event that Wrocław won, Fort Nysa made its debut. The entire team was 100% Polish, owing to the fact that the guy who started the team is Polish - he had fallen in love with AFL a while ago, and being the resourceful bloke he is, got a few mates together, got in contact with some local soccer clubs and got fields to use, got people involved, and grew like absolute wild fire. Seeing the Nysa blokes, who, by the way, hardly speak any English, take to the game as well as they have, has truly blown my mind.
Safe to say that the earlier mentioned Europcup didn't happen in 2020. We had our own tournament to replace it, made up of the Boars, Bisons, Nysa and Lions. This is the tournament that Nysa debuted in and that Wrocław won.
That was 2020. At the start of 2021, we were unsure if there was going to be a Eurocup (was to be held in Sterling, Scotland this year). We planned as if there was going to be, and planned to create the strongest possible 100% Polish team we could.
Friendly tournaments both inside Poland and outside (Against the Prague Dragons, Dresden Wolves and Berlin Crocs) helped us all improve when we could travel. The monthly Boars v Bisons games helped our players learn basic stuff like leading, kicking to advantage, but also finer points like kicking longer, safer tackles and switching play. Nysa and Wrocław are relatively close, so they played each other a fair bit, and all teams travelled to each other and played a whole lot of footy.
As it would happen, the Eurocup in Scotland was called off. It was at this point that we decided to have our own 'national' tournament with all Polish teams, where we'd have selectors that pick the best Polish players. These Polish players would make up the 2021 Polish Devils, who would then play at a friendly international tournament in Vienna, against Vienna, Graz, Prague and Budapest.
This selection tournament (called the Festival of Football) was held in Nysa, and Prague were a part of it. And it was a huge, huge day of the best footy I've ever seen played in Poland.
Prague won the day, but the level of skill showed by our Polish players was next-level since the last national tournament.
After this, we had our short list of Polish boys who were to make up the 2021 Polish Devils. And here they are in all their glory:
In Vienna, we managed to beat Budapest in our first game. Vienna got into our heads and we, unfortunately, lost that one. The game against Graz we also managed to win by a few goals, but the game of the day was Poland vs Prague. It's worth mentioning that on the day, we were the only team that was 100% localised. That is, not one aussie. All the other teams were local clubs, but we went to the extra effort of picking a 100% Polish team so that we could see at what level Polish AFL is at. And it is at a very, very good level.
Prague is made up of Czechs, but most of the team are Aussies or Irish students who have played Gaelic their whole life. They're all bloody brilliant teams, but Prague managed to beat us. With just 5 minutes left, we were 3 points up and it took a few Polish mistakes and some deep digging by the Czechs to get that last goal and win the day by 3 points. All in attendance backed up how well the Polish guys played.
Highlights of the game from Umpire-cam:
I also want to bring a little attention to the Budapest Bats - they've played 4 games now, and were started by a 14-year-old Aussie/Hungarian bloke living in Budapest. They're coming along in leaps and bounds and are worth keeping an eye on for those of you who froth at the ideas of International AFL.
So 2022 for AFL Poland? Certainly hoping that we're able to have the Eurocup in Scotland, where we'll take the Devils. We've got teams emerging in Silesia (which is more of a state than a city), Krakow and Lublin. When they're up and running, we'll have a total of 7 teams in Poland with over 85 paying members.
Our goals are to help those teams get up and running, secure a fixture, help get umpires and coaches trained up, but also create content in Polish. You have no idea how hard it is to try and teach a speccy or translate 'holding the ball' into Polish.
This is a whopper of a post and I am 100% sure that I've skimmed over a lot of stuff that may be of interest to you. I'm a pretty open book and happy to share how we've done things with anyone, within reason.
Lastly, big thanks to the BigFooty forums - MoscowHawk regularly comes here to help get logos and kit designed by here, and seeing how some of you guys express an interest in what we're doing - yeah, that really makes it worthwhile. To see that people are not only aware, but interested, in seeing the game of AFL grow abroad, that's what keeps the gears turning.
Last edited:
Ophidian Old Boys
