Chairman's Report

The key objective of ASAFA is to encourage and promote the sport of Australian Rules Football amongst the members of the Australian Defence Force. The principle ASAFA activities for 2010 are as follows.

The ASAFA National Carnival is traditionally preceded by the Kapooka 12s Competition conducted by the Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka (Wagga Wagga) on Saturday 13 March 2010. The Kapooka 12s provides an important opportunity for Service associations to draw prospective players and officials from around the country. The Service associations have identified other development and selection activities to ensure that all ADF bases and locations have opportunities for their personnel to participate in the Great Australian Game. Questions on these development and selection activities should be directed to your service football representatives detailed in this letter.

The major ASAFA activity for 2010 will be the National Carnival that will be conducted in Melbourne at Whitten Oval during the period 14-18 April 2010. Navy will be defending their title in both the men's competition and the women's competition. I anticipate that Navy, Army and Air Force will have training camps in the week preceding the National Carnival. It is intended that each Service will field a men's and women's team in the National Carnival and that at the end of the Carnival the men's 'ADF All Stars' and women's ADF National representative teams will be selected.

The men's 'ADF All Stars' team will play a game against the National Emergency Services Team on the 24 April in Adelaide before the Port - St Kilda AFL game. This will be the eighth occasion in which the 'ADF All Stars' have participated in this important activity. We are currently sourcing an opportunity for the women's ADF All Stars' team to play a similar standard game in 2010.

Umpires are a critical part of any Aussie Rules competition. ASAFA sponsors ADF umpires to undertake approved umpiring accreditation courses and the pool of available umpires has steadily grown over the last few years.

The ASAFA Executive Committee meets on a regular basis to plan and coordinate the conduct of Defence Aussie Rules activities and development of the Great Australian Game in the ADF. While we are unable to coordinate the development of the game at every level we seek opportunities to promote Aussie Rules in Defence.

The ASAFA Intranet website is at http://www.defence.gov.au/army/ASAFA/ . We are always on the look out for people who want to become active participants with Defence Aussie Rules as players, administrative staff, coaching staff, umpires committee members or just want to be involved. Listed below are the current key ASAFA Executives and their contact details.

a. Executive Officer: MAJ James Weaver - 0438 517 531
b. Operations Officer: SQNLDR Paul Webb - 08 9571 7100
c. Umpires Representative: WO2 Clay Baker - 02 8335 6523
d. Navy Football: CDRE Clint Thomas - 0439 649 683
e. Army Football: BRIG Shane Caughey - 02 8335 5204
e. Air Force Football: FLTLT Justin Taylor - 02 6265 7771
f. Sponsorship Officer: COL Cam Purdey - 02 8335 5496

The key objective of ASAFA is to encourage and promote the sport of Australian Rules Football amongst the members of the Australian Defence Force. My intent is to ensure that you, as a key stakeholder of the development of Aussie Rules in Defence, are aware of the principal ASAFA activities for 2010. I would welcome your input into how we can improve the coordination and development of Defence Australian Rules Football over the coming year.


David Saul
Brigadier
Chairman Australian Services Australian Football Association

23 Feb 10