Back from left: Eumemmerring Secondary College caters for many different cultural backgrounds, which is evident in students Koko, Jesse, Ben, Jeremiah, Daniel, Daniel and Jallal, and front, Neil, Lemy and Dylan, and looks set to be expanded further with the school developing a relationship with AFL Samoa.By Marc McGowan
EUMEMMERRING Secondary College is set to further embrace multiculturalism after striking a relationship with AFL Samoa.
The budding partnership is only in its early days, but the college has already set its sights on a 15-year-old Samoan joining it from next year.
The idea is the brainchild of Eumemmerring’s Sport and Recreation coordinator Ben McGee, who heard about the work AFL Samoa national game development manager Michael Roberts was doing overseas.
McGee was eager to incorporate AFL Samoa into the college’s sports academy, which already boasts alliances with the Dandenong Stingrays (Australian Rules football), Cricket Victoria, the Dandenong Rangers (basketball), the Melbourne Storm (rugby league) and Football Federation Victoria (soccer).
He sent an email to Roberts a few weeks back and through several discussions a link has been established.
“From the school’s perspective, this offers the chance to be globally recognised and obviously provides opportunities to young people that may not have them in that country,” McGee said.
“We’re obviously not just looking after this kid in Samoa, but also our bread and butter in the local community to offer the same sort of opportunities.”
There is still much work to be completed before any Samoans could come from overseas to attend the college, including organising student visas and deciding on the framework of the arrangement.
McGee also said a major factor in the success of this venture would be the support of local businesses because he estimated it would cost about $30,000 per international student for their proposed three-year tuition.
Ultimately, the goal of the program is to maximise the chance of Samoans playing AFL football in the future, and Roberts has high hopes.
“We hope this revolutionises the way in which overseas countries develop and identify talented youth and potentially produce draftable players,” he said.
“This type of program will produce incentives for countries to put more focus on junior development programs off-shore and encourage young men to take up (or) embrace the code with the hopes of securing overseas educational and sporting opportunities.”
