AFL Tonga

TAFA was founded on Australia Day (Jan 26) 2003 when Australian expatriates Tim Valente and Mark Korsten became involved in a vicious bragging competition. It was settled on 27 Jan 2003 at 7:00 AM with severe hangovers at Teufaiva (pronounced "TAFA FOREVER") Stadium.

A truce was called at approximately 7:12 AM, but not before a couple of hard case pipehittin' Tongan's had come out of the stands with back-to-front baseball caps, goofy grins and a mouthful of What gives man!" 10 minutes later Tim and Mark had them up to speed on drop punts. 20 minutes later they were slotting bananas from the boundary. By the 30 min mark they were finishing off with one of those Buddah Hocking finger waves to the empty stands.

The talent was obvious and still is. That was week one. In the subsequent weeks they came sometimes, gave it a miss sometimes, but had a good time always. Each time they came back they brought their mates and brothers and numbers grew steadily. In March 2003 Mark and Tim were contacted by Mr Brian Clarke at the International Australian Football Council. That's when things really started to move.

In April 2004 Brian visited Tonga to make a Country Assessment, conduct a coaching clinic and deliver an initial starter kit. Amongst the goodies was a complete set of Hawthorn Jumpers personally donated by the Hawthorn Football Club President, Mr Ian Dicker . This was a massive show of generosity and shows the depth of vision and personal belief that people placed in TAFA from day one. In times of desperation and despair TAFA has drawn on the knowledge that people like Ian invested in TAFA on a vision of what could be, not what is. TAFA's relationship with Hawthorn continues to grow.

Then slowly... ...skills grew... ...passion was found... ...new teams formed... ...friendships were made... ...rivalries had emerged... ...competition commenced.... ...leaders were identified... ....and we had lots of fun.

In Mar 2004 the first Tongan played in a National Team. Sila Va'enuku, also a reasonable Rugby Union player, was invited to play with the Tongan expatriate community in the Multicultural Cup in Melbourne, Australia. Tonga did reasonably well winning its first pool match comfortably, but losing the second match to traditional rival Samoa by a small margin. This was obviously a bit disappointing, but it was great to get the Tongan expat community on board and to give everyone a bit of a demonstration of Pacific Talent.

At about the same time TAFA was privileged to receive a full time development Officer. Nick Blencowe, originally from Castlemaine, Victoria took 9 months leave from his permanent position as Royal Australian Navy Physical Training Instructor to come to Tonga as a volunteer under the Australian Youth Ambassador Scheme. This generous assistance from the Australian Government made a big difference, with Nick already successful in establishing a High Schools Competition