By RUSSELL BENNETT
AUSTRALIANS all know that Aussie Rules footy is the best game on earth… now it’s time for the rest of the world to figure it out.
From a three-hour trip in 80 per cent humidity to train the Dongguan Blues in Humen Dongguan, China, to the icy wintery chill of Catani – it’s a big change for Darrell Egan and Honghue ‘Leighton’ Lin.
But Aussie Rules brought them to Australia and to their sister club in the Ellinbank and District Football League, and now it could put everyone involved on the map.
Darrell, originally from Victoria, is the president of the non-profit House of Australia Macau Association. He founded the Dongguan team and first met Leighton in China as a young 17-year-old prospect for his team.
“His character was one of great energy, eagerness to learn footy and he was (ultimately) a natural choice as captain,” he said.
“He had a leap in which, from a standing start, he could fly up to grab a basketball ring.”
Now 19, Leighton visited the Catani Football Club with Darrell for training last Thursday night. Ellinbank’s Blues and the Dongguan Blues have forged a sister club relationship that both hope will be a huge benefit moving forward. The Chinese team is based out of a middle secondary school with players aged from 15 to 19. They are from a semi-rural demographic, not too dissimilar to players from Catani.
“What attracted me at first at the middle school was its Confucius quote: ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand’,” Darrell said at Catani’s Taplins Road ground.
“Footy was a great avenue of these students to understand even with the language barrier of me speaking little Chinese and they little English.
“With Catani Football Club and our association House of Australia Macau’s tourism promotion, footy is a good fit for branding and promotion.
“This is something our association has discussed for some time and now are excited about the engagement of Catani Football Club to initiate this.”
Leighton, part of the Chinese team in the AFL International Cup, received a few handy tips from the likes of Catani player-coach Josh Tymensen and full-forward Owen Fitzpatrick at training. He even showed off his 40-plus metre goal-kicking range before sitting down with the EDFL team for a chicken parma in the clubrooms.
Both the Blues clubs are hopeful funding can be raised to document football workshops in Macau, Zhuhai and Dongguan in the coming months.
After the workshops, Darrell will begin a three-month stint in the schools to set up training programs and development courses with the potential for a player exchange program with Catani.
Nola from Wings and Fins Restaurant in Tooradin has already come on board the project as a sponsor and the Catani Football Club is on the lookout for more as it takes the lead in growing the game internationally from the grassroots.
For more information, or to get involved, call Catani secretary Brian Edwards on 0423 326 245 or email catanifc@bigpond.com.
