Danish Australian Football League
Encyclopedia
The Danish Australian Football League is the controlling body
and main league
for the sport
of Australian rules football
in Denmark
. Founded in 1989, regular competition commenced in 1991. Despite being predominantly Danish, the league includes clubs in Scania
(Swedish: Skåne, southern Sweden).
.
) placed an advertisement in a Danish newspaper
asking if there were any interested parties who would like to meet him for an kick-to-kick
in Fælledparken
, a public park in Copenhagen
. Three people attended the informal session, forming the basis for the future league. In 1990 regular training sessions were held, with numbers swelling to the point where the players split themselves into three groups with the intention of starting a competition the following year.
The foundation clubs of the league were the Amager Tigers, Copenhagen Crocodiles and North Copenhagen Barracudas. Official league play began on June 8, 1991 with North Copenhagen taking on Copenhagen. In 1993, the next team to join the league were the Aalborg Kangaroos, based in northern Jutland
and around six hours' travel from Copenhagen, followed in 1994 by the Helsingborg Saints in southern Sweden.
1995 saw two new expansion sides, the Farum Lions forming in the Copenhagen suburbs and a group leaving the Helsingborg Saints to found Sweden's second team, the Lund Bulldogs. Lund folded during the 1995 season, the number of clubs remaining at six until the Århus Bombers join the league in 1997 as the second side in Jutland.
With no new teams since 1997 and player numbers decreasing for the first time, the DAFL restructured its competition in 2003. The concept was based on more games between more (and smaller) teams - with three conferences making up the league. These were to be the Jutland Conference and the Zealand Conference in Denmark and the Scania Conference in Sweden. Clubs would be split into smaller squads and representative sides from the three conferences would play a regional series. The champion sides of each conference would then play a Denmark/Scania wide finals series to determine DAFL premiers.
This format was then reinvented a second time in 2005. Instead of adding a new level above the regular league play, as had been the case in 2003, the new league replaced the regional series with the club-based DAFL Premier League. The Premier League teams in 2007 are the North Copenhagen Barracudas, Farum Cats, Copenhagen Crocs, Jutland Shinboners, Port Malmö Maulers and the South Sweden Saints. Sides in the Premier League draw their players from four local leagues, based on North Zealand, Copenhagen, Jutland and Scania.
The current (2007) president is Mark White.
, Randers
and Århus.
The Aalborg Kangaroos were formed in 1993, the first DAFL club outside Copenhagen
and lasted until 2003, when with the DAFL league restructure, the Aalborg club created two squads, the Kangaroos and the Power for the newly-formed Jutland Conference.
The Århus Bombers formed in 1997, as the DAFL's seventh club and the second in Jutland. When the league restructured in 2003, Århus competed in the 3-team Jutland Conference with the two squads from Aalborg, then in 2005 becoming a feeder side for the Shinboners in the DAFL premier league while continuing to play in the Jutland local league. Player numbers dwindled somewhat in the Aalborg and Århus camps, with the two playing the local league on an ad-hoc basis.
In 2009, the Jutland Local League was boosted with the creation of the Randers Dockers, Denmark's first new club in over a decade. Aalborg, Århus and Randers then became a three-team league, with the 2009 season having the largest playing numbers and least number of forfeited matches since the regional competition started in 2003.
The club in Farum
, originally dubbed the Lions, formed in late 1994, joining the DAFL for the 1995 season. They reached the grand final in every one of their first four seasons, although they only won the premiership in 1996. Farum have had an active junior department program since 1998, with half of the current senior players originally coming to the club as juniors. A partnership arrangement with the Geelong Football Club
of the Australian Football League
saw the club change its name and playing strip to match that of the Geelong club, and send senior and regular junior sides on tours of Australia.
The North Copenhagen Barracudas were a foundation club of the DAFL, playing in every season since the league started in 1991. After the 2003 league restructure, the club fielded two senior sides, the Barras and the Cudas. After the 2005 restructure, the club fields the Barracudas team in the DAFL Premier League and two squads in the Copenhagen local league.
The Copenhagen Crocs were also a foundation club of the Danish Australian Football League and have played (in some form) in every season of the DAFL since it began in 1991. With the league restructure in 2005, the Crocs fielded a combined side with the Amager Tigers in the DAFL Premier League, dubbed the Copenhagen Hawks. The Crocs traditionally wore the colours of the Carlton Blues from the AFL
. The Crocodiles returned to the Premier League in 2006.
The Amager Tigers, based in Amager
in the southern Copenhagen
urban area, were formed as the third foundation club of the DAFL, competing in every season (in some form) from 1991 to 2005. The Tigers had the most successful premiership record of any club in the DAFL, however they often struggled for year-to-year consistency, with premiership years followed by a finish near the bottom of the ladder. After the 2005 DAFL restructure, Amager fielded a combined side with the Copenhagen Crocodiles for play in the DAFL Premier League, to be named the Copenhagen Hawks. In early 2006 they announced that they would not field any teams that season, but may do so again in future.
in southern Sweden
currently fields two teams in the DAFL Premier League, the South Sweden Saints and Port Malmö Maulers. These two sides draw from a feeder league which is part of the Swedish Australian Football League.
They competed in the Australian Football International Cup
in Melbourne, finishing a respectable fourth behind Ireland, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The Vikings withdrew from the 2005 International Cup due to lack of funds, although they returned to the 2008 International Cup.
Sport governing body
A sport governing body is a sports organization that has a regulatory or sanctioning function. Sport governing bodies come in various forms, and have a variety of regulatory functions. Examples of this can include disciplinary action for rule infractions and deciding on rule changes in the sport...
and main league
Sports league
League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...
for the sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
of Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. Founded in 1989, regular competition commenced in 1991. Despite being predominantly Danish, the league includes clubs in Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
(Swedish: Skåne, southern Sweden).
Participation
[_Census_Sheet_240807.pdf International Census 2007], DAFL is often considered the largest Australian Rules football competition outside the English speaking worldAnglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
.
History
In 1989 Mick Sitch (cousin of Rob SitchRob Sitch
Robert Ian Sitch , is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian.-Early life:Sitch attended St Kevin's College and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Womans Hospital...
) placed an advertisement in a Danish newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
asking if there were any interested parties who would like to meet him for an kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick is a pastime and well-known tradition of Australian rules football fans, and a recognised Australian term for kick and catch type games...
in Fælledparken
Fælledparken
The park Fælledparken in Copenhagen, Denmark, was created 1906–1914 by landscape architect Edvard Glæsel in cooperation with the Copenhagen Municipality on the commons previously named Nørrefælled and Østerfælled....
, a public park in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. Three people attended the informal session, forming the basis for the future league. In 1990 regular training sessions were held, with numbers swelling to the point where the players split themselves into three groups with the intention of starting a competition the following year.
The foundation clubs of the league were the Amager Tigers, Copenhagen Crocodiles and North Copenhagen Barracudas. Official league play began on June 8, 1991 with North Copenhagen taking on Copenhagen. In 1993, the next team to join the league were the Aalborg Kangaroos, based in northern Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
and around six hours' travel from Copenhagen, followed in 1994 by the Helsingborg Saints in southern Sweden.
1995 saw two new expansion sides, the Farum Lions forming in the Copenhagen suburbs and a group leaving the Helsingborg Saints to found Sweden's second team, the Lund Bulldogs. Lund folded during the 1995 season, the number of clubs remaining at six until the Århus Bombers join the league in 1997 as the second side in Jutland.
With no new teams since 1997 and player numbers decreasing for the first time, the DAFL restructured its competition in 2003. The concept was based on more games between more (and smaller) teams - with three conferences making up the league. These were to be the Jutland Conference and the Zealand Conference in Denmark and the Scania Conference in Sweden. Clubs would be split into smaller squads and representative sides from the three conferences would play a regional series. The champion sides of each conference would then play a Denmark/Scania wide finals series to determine DAFL premiers.
This format was then reinvented a second time in 2005. Instead of adding a new level above the regular league play, as had been the case in 2003, the new league replaced the regional series with the club-based DAFL Premier League. The Premier League teams in 2007 are the North Copenhagen Barracudas, Farum Cats, Copenhagen Crocs, Jutland Shinboners, Port Malmö Maulers and the South Sweden Saints. Sides in the Premier League draw their players from four local leagues, based on North Zealand, Copenhagen, Jutland and Scania.
The current (2007) president is Mark White.
Jutland
Since 2005, the Jutland Shinboners have been the sole representative team from this region in the DAFL premier league. Feeding into the Shinboners is a local league based around clubs in AalborgAalborg
-Transport:On the north side of the Limfjord is Nørresundby, which is connected to Aalborg by a road bridge Limfjordsbroen, an iron railway bridge Jernbanebroen over Limfjorden, as well as a motorway tunnel running under the Limfjord Limfjordstunnelen....
, Randers
Randers
Randers is a city in Randers municipality on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 60,656 . Randers city is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council.-Overview:Randers municipality has 94,750 inhabitants...
and Århus.
The Aalborg Kangaroos were formed in 1993, the first DAFL club outside Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and lasted until 2003, when with the DAFL league restructure, the Aalborg club created two squads, the Kangaroos and the Power for the newly-formed Jutland Conference.
The Århus Bombers formed in 1997, as the DAFL's seventh club and the second in Jutland. When the league restructured in 2003, Århus competed in the 3-team Jutland Conference with the two squads from Aalborg, then in 2005 becoming a feeder side for the Shinboners in the DAFL premier league while continuing to play in the Jutland local league. Player numbers dwindled somewhat in the Aalborg and Århus camps, with the two playing the local league on an ad-hoc basis.
In 2009, the Jutland Local League was boosted with the creation of the Randers Dockers, Denmark's first new club in over a decade. Aalborg, Århus and Randers then became a three-team league, with the 2009 season having the largest playing numbers and least number of forfeited matches since the regional competition started in 2003.
Zealand
There are currently three teams from Zealand in the DAFL Premier League, the Farum Cats, North Copenhagen Barracudas and Copenhagen Crocodiles.The club in Farum
Farum
Farum is a town in the northeast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, 20 km northwest of Copenhagen. The town has a population of 18,521 .The town is part of Furesø municipality. Until 2006, it constituted Farum municipality....
, originally dubbed the Lions, formed in late 1994, joining the DAFL for the 1995 season. They reached the grand final in every one of their first four seasons, although they only won the premiership in 1996. Farum have had an active junior department program since 1998, with half of the current senior players originally coming to the club as juniors. A partnership arrangement with the Geelong Football Club
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
of the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
saw the club change its name and playing strip to match that of the Geelong club, and send senior and regular junior sides on tours of Australia.
The North Copenhagen Barracudas were a foundation club of the DAFL, playing in every season since the league started in 1991. After the 2003 league restructure, the club fielded two senior sides, the Barras and the Cudas. After the 2005 restructure, the club fields the Barracudas team in the DAFL Premier League and two squads in the Copenhagen local league.
The Copenhagen Crocs were also a foundation club of the Danish Australian Football League and have played (in some form) in every season of the DAFL since it began in 1991. With the league restructure in 2005, the Crocs fielded a combined side with the Amager Tigers in the DAFL Premier League, dubbed the Copenhagen Hawks. The Crocs traditionally wore the colours of the Carlton Blues from the AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
. The Crocodiles returned to the Premier League in 2006.
The Amager Tigers, based in Amager
Amager
Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...
in the southern Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
urban area, were formed as the third foundation club of the DAFL, competing in every season (in some form) from 1991 to 2005. The Tigers had the most successful premiership record of any club in the DAFL, however they often struggled for year-to-year consistency, with premiership years followed by a finish near the bottom of the ladder. After the 2005 DAFL restructure, Amager fielded a combined side with the Copenhagen Crocodiles for play in the DAFL Premier League, to be named the Copenhagen Hawks. In early 2006 they announced that they would not field any teams that season, but may do so again in future.
Scania
Due to its proximity to Denmark, the region of ScaniaScania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
in southern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
currently fields two teams in the DAFL Premier League, the South Sweden Saints and Port Malmö Maulers. These two sides draw from a feeder league which is part of the Swedish Australian Football League.
National team
Denmark's national representative team are known as the Vikings. They have played a number of international fixtures dating back to the 1990s.They competed in the Australian Football International Cup
Australian Football International Cup
The Australian Football International Cup is an international sport competition in Australian rules football...
in Melbourne, finishing a respectable fourth behind Ireland, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The Vikings withdrew from the 2005 International Cup due to lack of funds, although they returned to the 2008 International Cup.
Premiers
- 1991 North Copenhagen
- 1992 Amager
- 1993 Amager
- 1994 Copenhagen
- 1995 Amager
- 1996 Farum Cats
- 1997 Amager
- 1998 Copenhagen
- 1999 Copenhagen
- 2000 North Copenhagen
- 2001 North Copenhagen
- 2002 Amager
- 2003 Amager
- 2004 North Copenhagen Cudas
- 2005 Farum Cats
- 2006 Farum Cats
- 2007 Farum Cats
- 2008 North Copenhagen Barracudas
- 2009 Port Malmö Maulers
- 2010 North Copenhagen Barracudas
Sitch Medallists (Best & Fairests)
- 1991 Kim Madsen (Amager)
- 1992 Aaron Ravenarki (Copenhagen)
- 1993 Ian Moore (North Copenhagen)
- 1994 Rick Ellis (Amager)
- 1995 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)
- 1996 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)
- 1997 Shaun Hawking (Amager)
- 1998 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen)
- 1999 Duncan Milward (Aalborg)
- 2000 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
- 2001 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
- 2002 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
- 2003 Pàll Finnsson (Aalborg Kangaroos)
- 2004 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen Cudas)
- 2005 Frederik Schulin (Jutland)
- 2006 Christian Rose (Farum)
- 2007 Tim Feldtmann (North Copenhagen)
- 2008 Tim Feldtmann (North Copenhagen)
- 2009 Steve Wood (North Copenhagen)
- 2010 Nick Ingall (North Copenhagen