2007 OAFL Season Wrap
Sunday, 16th December 2008
The 2007 season brought some changes to the OAFL. With a few new faces in the league executive, we were looking to revamp a few bylaws, rules and procedures, aswell as the playing schedule, to improve the overall quality of the league. With input and feedback from member clubs, these changes were implemented with mostly successful results. As we look forward, we expect to take the experiences and the knowledge we’ve gained this year to make the league even stronger in 2008.
The league executive saw the addition of some new members at last year’s AGM, with Bryan Wells (Toronto Downtown Dingo’s)stepping into the VP role, and Murray Barnes (Etobicoke Kangaroos) becoming Director.
In addition, we had a few existing executive members take on new roles with David Wells (Toronto Downtown Dingo’s) moving from VP to President and Aaron Fanning (Guelph Gargoyles) taking over the Treasurer position following a year as Director. The executive, as always, was strongly supported by others, including Bruce Parker (Central Blues) as Registrar, Brian Dunkin as Director of Umpires, and Sean Duffy (Lakeshore Rebels) as Past President. Their work and contributions were essential to this year’s successful campaign.
All of the 2007 executive members dedicated a lot of their own personal time and effort into making sure that the clubs and players of the OAFL enjoyed high quality competition on the field, and benefited from organized and strong leadership off the field. A number of the executive members are interested in returning for another season, which will help make 2008 even better than 2007.
With the disbanding of the Windsor Mariners and London Magpies in 2006 and the addition of the Central Blues that same year, the OAFL stood at 9 member clubs in the lead-up to the 2007 season. However, interest in forming a new club soon grew in a number of locations, with Bill Frampton spearheading an effort to re-introduce team in London—the Stallions—and a group of individuals looking to start a club in Ottawa, calling themselves the Swans.
Mention was made of a third potential club in the Kitchener/Waterloo region, however, it was the Stallions and Swans who organized themselves and showed the impetus necessary to join the OAFL. Unfortunately, the Stallions were not able to secure the use of an adequate field from the city of London and as such, were not admitted to the OAFL. On the other hand, while at the start of the season the Swans were able to fulfill all the requirements for entry into the OAFL, they ultimately decided to delay their entry for 1year.
This delay allowed the Swans club executive to continue their recruiting and fundraising efforts, thus assuring that they would be an extremely strong addition to the OAFL in 2008. While many of the London Stallions players ultimately decided to play for the Hamilton Wildcats, the Swans were able to retain their players and continue to generate momentum throughout 2007. Exhibition games versus the Central Blues, Northwind, and the Guelph Gargoyles also allowed their rookies to get a good taste of footy. The experience from these matches should serve them well as they start OAFL play in 2008.
The league continued with the successful changes to the schedule introduced in 2006. The main change being that six Friday Night games would be hosted by the Etobicoke Kangaroos at Humber South field. As in 2006, the response by all clubs was fairly positive; the atmosphere generated at Humber South was great for footy and most clubs enjoyed having the subsequent weekend free. The league also had to have three make-up games mid week due to the odd number of teams in the league this year. Two of these games were played at Humber North, while the third was played at Humber South. All games were carried out on a Thursday night prior to a long, holiday weekend and were carried out successfully.
Both the Guelph Gargoyles and Hamilton Wildcats continued to host 6 home games each, with the OAFL schedule adjusted prior to the season to accommodate the availability of their home grounds. The fields were in good condition and the games carried out generally without incident, with the exception of a mix-up between umpires, which resulted in a Wildcat supporter being forced to umpire.
This year saw the continued strong play and competitiveness that has come to be expected from the OAFL. Once again, strong Australian players demonstrated how the game ought to be played, but many Canadians are right there in terms of skill and desire on the field. The continued effort and training put in by the Canadian national team – The Northwind – will ensure that this Canadian skill level will continue to rise every year.
As always, some clubs did not perform as well as in previous years while others greatly exceeded their own expectations. However, there continued to be an increase in the competitiveness of each match and as a result there were fewer blowouts. We want to congratulate the Central Blues for the gaining their first two victories in their club history this past season.
The 2007 season also saw the first widespread use of video in the OAFL. Thanks to ITZ Media Productions and the efforts of several clubs to move it forward, many games were recorded from temporary scaffolding erected at Humber North and South fields. DVD copies of these games could then be purchased by individual clubs, which provided a huge benefit in terms of education for newer players and overall game strategy for clubs.
The wide-ranging implications of recording OAFL games have not been fully explored; from potential disciplinary issues to cost considerations and the potential for increased broader media exposure. These issues will have to be examined closely and addressed in the coming years.
