FLAG Football could very well be the next ‘big thing’ in Fiji’s sporting landscape.
This sport is the 5-on-5 non-contact version of American Football, better known as the NFL, played by both women and men in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Now it has expanded in scope into the Pacific Islands with Fiji being their first choice to set the foundation for the exciting sport.
This opened the opportunity for an NFL team comprising of trainers and American Football athlete, Patrick Murtagh, to conduct clinics at the grassroots level in schools and communities.
“As part of our international growth strategy, we want to bring NFL Flag into the Pacific and grow participation for our game starting with Fiji and then wider into the Pacific over the next few years.
“We always had a goal to grow the game in the Pacific. We’ve had huge success with flag football in New Zealand and Australia. Those programmes have grown from 10 schools to 740 schools across both countries in just three years.
“Fiji felt like the obvious choice given you already have a very solid sports foundation and it felt like the right place to start,” general manager NFL Australia New Zealand and the Pacific, Charlotte Offord said.
With the introduction of the sport seeing a success, the next step now is to set up a national federation which will continue the development of the sport in the country.
“Our goal is really to introduce the Fijian community to the game of Flag Football, encourage them and help set up a sustainable platform for the game to be played and really help set up a federation so that we can continue to run clinics, continue to engage with schools and bring resources, equipment and coaching to the wider community of Fiji.”
Once that is done, the team looks to expand their reach to other Pacific Island countries including Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
