114-Sydney AFL is on the map

There was a time in Sydney AFL where if a representative team went to Canberra, fought bravely and lost by less than 5 goals, it was as good as a win. But on Saturday, 2 teams went down and dominated Canberra and had a combined winning margin of 102 points, and put the Sydney AFL on the map.

I was nervous watching the first team, the Sydney AFL women, warming up-I had just spoken to the girls in the rooms, and there was a good vibe, but when they hit the grass of Star Track oval, they were flanked by one trainer and one coach and had only been training together for about 6 weeks. Canberra on the other hand had been training together since November and seemed to have at least one coach for every player.

This was going to be tough.

Thankfully though, rep footy isn't about which team has been together the longest, it's about how quickly they come together on the day, and from the first bounce, the Sydney girls played as though they had been best mates since pre-school. They were committed, disciplined, tough, fast and skilful, they were never going to take a backwards step despite being severley beaten in the resource and professionality stakes, and they were never going to lose.

It was a pleasure to watch a group of representative footballers play with such pride, and whether or not they meant to, they made earning a Sydney AFL representative jumper a more presigious honour than it ever has been.

When it came time for the mens team to run out, the bar had been set incredibly high by the girls, but despite being firm underdogs, the boys went out and played with a respect for their team mates that was remarkable, given they are meant to hate each other when they play for their club sides.

When the girls team took their seats in the stands and got around the boys, the score was already comfortably favouring Sydney, but as they kept on piling on goal after goal, they were reinforcing Sydney football's place as a quality competition that is fast becoming a league where talented footballers can play and give themselves a chance to be drafted into the AFL.

Neither team went to Canberra with the aim of putting Sydney AFL on the map, giving their competition a respect it's been yearning for for more than a decade, or making selection to a Sydney AFL rep team more prestigious than it's ever been, both teams just controlled the small things in front of them as well as they possibly could, and let the big things that were out of their control take care of themselves.