Aqua Footy, a sport combining elements of Australian Rules Football (AFL), basketball, and water polo, is gaining popularity in the hot mining town of Newman, Western Australia. The game, played in the local swimming pool, offers a fun and refreshing way for kids to stay active during the summer months.
It's a hot and humid evening in the West Australian mining town of Newman and, like many regional towns during summer, the local swimming pool is a hive of activity.Two goals are being set up while two teams are selected. They are about to start a game of Aqua Footy — a sport believed to be unique to the Pilbara town, about 1,170 kilometres north-west of Perth.
Organiser Brendon Daily says it just made sense to combine the popular sport of AFL with a way to keep cool, especially in a town where the temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees.Mr Daily used to live in Newman and continues to visit in his role as the youth engagement coordinator for the West Coast Eagles.'It's a bit of a basketball, water polo, footy kind of game.''It's great for the kids to work on their handball skills,' Mr Daily says. 'Although I do allow the throwing of the footy, especially for the smaller kids if they are struggling with their handballs.' The Monday afternoon sessions attract a range of ages, including Duane Scomparin, 16, who volunteers as an umpire. 'It's pretty fun actually, just seeing the kids have fun and blowing a few calls,' he says. 'We usually just blow the whistle and get two people to ruck and that restarts it, everyone spreads out and the game just runs.''We do 30 minutes and then we take a dinner break or lunch, and then after we'll go for another 20 or 30 minutes,' he says.Sammi Ryder from the youth engagement group Newman Y says the event is more than just sport. 'We do transport and drop off at the end of the night, and I have a lot of stakeholders and sponsors that jump on and supply catering,' she says. 'There's so many kids in town and there's not enough free events and free stuff, they know they can come down, have a feed and enjoy some sport.''The first year we didn't have any goals, it was just an end-to-end keepy-off with two teams,' Mr Daily say
AQUA FOOTY SUMMERSPORTS WESTERN AUSTRALIA YOUTHENGAGEMENT AFL
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