AFL in Vanuatu: A short history or a history in short's?
Recount by Mark Dunn:
I arrived in Vanuatu in 1985 and was told that there was an annual Australian Rules game between the Banks and the rest.
I did conduct a few Aussie Rules training sessions at Malapoa College in 1985 (my wife was a PE teacher there), and the natural ability was amazing!!
In 1986 I helped establish the team "Beroccas" and the game soon became the Beroccas versus the rest. (We often played against visiting Australian & NZ navy vessels.)
The Beroccas were a "social" rugby team, comprised of rugby players of both codes (League and Union) with the odd sprinkling of Aussie rules players and the ANZ teams were made up of the rest of the expats here in Vila who didn't play rugby but were keen to play and make up numbers for a game.
History of AFL in Port Vila by Jacko Laycock:
The first game I was involved in was in mid 1988. The game and many subsequent games were between the Beroccas and the ANZ.
The games were fiercely competitive with a little 'biffo' not un-common.
In those days, the age of the expat population was predominantly younger, employees with the banks (ANZ & Westpac), the Australian & New Zealand High Commissions and accounting companies. They were all generally employing younger single types, keen to live in 'Paradise', so sport was fairly strong within the expat community.
Later the ANZ was replaced by the Auld Hebrideans which was a similarly 'social' but Soccer team.
These games were usually 12-a-side, unlimited interchange and played on a soccer field with the corners rounded off to form an oval.
Kowenu was used most often (it is the lower field at Malapoa near the sea).
When the Aussie navy ships the HMAS Success and the HMAS Sydney visited around 1992 we organised a round robin series of games between the Beroccas and each navy ship on a Saturday afternoon with the rules as above. The Navy boys were fit and for many of them Aussie rules was their first sport (unlike some of our boys) but we managed to come through and take out the competition in fine style.
A year or so later we played a Beroccas versus Auld Hebrideans game at Freshwater near the present school, using both of the soccer fields to form a proper sized oval. (Huge compared to what we were all used too.)
The Auld Hebrideans won and some of the Beroccas forward line had to be bussed back to the centre of the ground at three quarter time to get their oranges and bussed off to the other end ready for the last quarter to start. Fitness was starting to become an issue for the aging AFL population!!
An annual game was played between the Auld Hebrideans and Beroccas throughout the Nineties and up until around 2005 when age, fitness and enthusiasm took their toll and games petered out. The Beroccas played their last game of Rugby a few years ago against a Golden Oldies outfit from Sunnybank in Brisbane "The Sunnybank Puffing Dragons".
The Auld Hebrideans Soccer team, after playing socially nearly every Friday Night, from around 1982, played their last game around the end of 2006.
Both the Beroccas and the Auld Hebrideans took to AFL keenly and with the sprinkling of dedicated Aussie rules players scattered between both teams the standard wasn't too bad.
Justin Johnston played in most of the latter games and no matter what he says, the Beroccas had the upper hand in the majority of the games played. (He being on the losing Auld Hebrideans team).
Thanks to Mark Dunn & Jacko Laycock for sharing their memories.