Franklin Women on Swiss National Aussie Rules Football Team
10/11/2011
Ten Franklin women are providing the backbone for the Swiss Women’s National Team of Aussie Rules Football—the Swiss Swans. The players, including Franklin students Quinn Flanagan, Ashton McGinnis, Claudia Rybienik, Novia Dela Rosa, Erin Walter, Katrina Lamarre, Anna Hixson, Stephanie Erichsen and Abigail Alston, were in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on October 8 representing Switzerland in the 2011 Euro Cup Championship, which was televised by ESPN. (Leslie McNulty is also on the team but was unable to go to the tournament.) Their task was to wrest the title of European AFL champions from the defending champs, the Irish Banshees, who were playing on home turf. Last year the Banshees defeated Team Italia at the 2010 Euro Cup in Milan. The Swiss team is coached by Mattia Sacchi and Luca Urso, former players on the Swiss Men’s Aussie Rules team who got into the sport through their involvement with rugby.
This fast-growing and fast-paced contact sport is less rough than rugby but more physical than soccer. Each team consists of 18 players (except for the Euro Cup, which is played with 9 players on a side) and there are four vertical goal posts; the hands are used as well as the feet. All these elements add up to a great sport—also for spectators.
Franklin’s involvement in the Women’s AFL, also known as Women’s Footy, began when Claudia Rybienik joined the team while attending summer classes at Franklin and looking for something to do in town. When students returned to classes she spread the word about the team and organized an information session on campus between interested students and local coaches. As a result, women representing every Franklin class began attending regular practices in town. The fledgling team was subsequently invited to participate in the 2011 Euro Cup tournament but would have to prove eligibility and secure recognition as a national team.
Claudia led the team through the arduous task of registering for the tournament, a process that necessitated a great deal of research and effort in order to convince the league that the Franklin women’s B-permits qualified them to compete on the Swiss team. In order to become a national team they had to draft a constitution and elect an executive committee to manage the team. Claudia was elected president with Stephanie Erichsen as secretary. The director of the European AFL then granted recognition to the team.
The next challenge was funding. The Franklin women organized a series of fundraisers including several bake sales on campus as well as a private party at a local restaurant in which 10 percent of the proceeds from drink sales were donated to the team. The team also secured a sponsorship by Adidas through Zappa Sport (a Lugano sport store).
Word spread to the very active Swiss community in Australia about an AFL team developing in Switzerland. This led to contact with the most successful professional AFL team in Australia, the Sydney Swans. The Swans’ organization, seeking a partnership with a team in the expanding European league, offered the rights to their name and logo to the Swiss team. Last week in Milan the Swiss Swans played their first international match, beating the Milano Latinas 28-15.
Unfortunately in the Euro Cup finals the Irish Banshees prevailed over the Swans, who scored only one goal (a goal that elicited the loudest cheer of the whole tournament from the crowd, however). Considering that the defending champions have played together for over three years and come from backgrounds in rugby and Gaelic football, the Swans made a very respectable showing in spite of being new to the sport and having played together only a few weeks. The fact that they are now the second-highest ranked team in Europe is also some consolation!
The Swans look forward to continuing with their new-found passion for Footy by competing against teams in the Italian Aussie Rules League for the rest of the season. In the long term they are hoping to formalize a partnership with the Sydney Swans and to make Franklin involvement on the team a tradition to continue for years to come. More about Women’s AFL can be found here www.littlepommygirl.wordpress.com and www.afleurope.org.
