THE AFL North West has formed a new partnership with AFL Vanuatu, which will allow local players travel overseas to play the game.
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Announced on Thursday, the international community partnership, which includes all of the northern NSW AFL leagues, is designed to mutually benefit players from both countries, as well as grow the game overseas.
AFL North West community development officer Paul Taylor said the tours to Vanuatu could begin as early as next year.
"In the early 2000's, AFL Vanuatu, through Australian ex-pats, formed a local committee which was formally recognised by the AFL," Taylor said.
"AFL National provides a degree of support to a number of nations across the South Pacific
"The South Pacific development newsletters get circulated internally every month or two, and I floated the idea of a sister-city style arrangement.
"Turns out our regional manager plays cricket with a guy who splits his time between Sydney and Vanuatu and is the president of AFL Vanuatu.
"That made it pretty easy to decide which nation we focused on."
Taylor said the agreement "would work both ways" and have positive impacts for both countries.
"As well as having our players go to Vanuatu, there's opportunities for their players to come and play here in northern NSW," he said.
"It's a really exciting time for our game in the region and this partnership is just the latest exciting development."
Encompassing AFL North Coast, AFL Hunter Central Coast and AFL North West NSW, Taylor said the Northern Heat program may be one of the first to benefit from the new partnership.
"We are ideally looking to start this partnership next year, but we working through logistics, costs, etc to see how we can best package this and promote to people," he said.
"[We're] not sure what structures Vanuatu currently has above under-15 level.
"We are considering using the Northern Heat brand at under-15 level as the name for the team that travels over as soon as teams start going."