Playing long balls into empty space since 2012.

Thursday 6 August 2015

Putting AFL Cultural Diversity on the Table

Current AFL Players with a Multicultural Background

The table below is taken directly from the AFL's community website. It purports to show the diverse nature of AFL participation. I think it does just the opposite. Leaving aside the utter stupidity of creating two kinds of people: multicutural and (presumably) monocultural, the table indicates to me the paucity of diversity in AFL ranks. 

As a number of correspondents have noted, the table is poorly constructed -- and may even undersell AFL's diversity credentials by failing to pick up some relevant players.

Rather than 'multicultural' the AFL needs to use a different term to cover players whose ancestry is non-Anglo-Saxon, Anglo Celtic, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (NASACATSI). The difficulty of coming up with accurate terminology is discussed by the Multicultural NSW website.

It is worth noting that some players in the table below are either not NASACATSI or are borderline
  • Those born in Australian with one parent born in Australia and the other in a commonwealth country or USA
  • Those born in Australia with both parents born in an anglophone country 
  • Those born overseas to Australian parents
These 47 players I have ruled out because it is just silly to include them. That leaves 47 on the list.

Other players are:
  • Those born overseas to non-Australian anglophone parents
  • Those born in Australia (or overseas when their parents were playing/working/coaching in the short term) with one parent born in Australia and the other in a non-anglophone country
  • Those born in Australia with both parents born in a non-anglophone country 
  • Some adult recruits from other sports (these are bolded in red)
These 38 players fall into a category of possibly-to-probably having NASACATSI elements to their background. I have left them as plain text.

The final grouping is those with clear NASACATSI heritage. These I have bolded in blue. These are 14 players out of a total player pool of 811.

Please feel free to challenge and correct any assumption I have made.

Responses 
Much maligned arwon @Arwon has made the point that I had mistakenly given Australian parents to some of the adult OS recruits. This either has been corrected or is in the process of being fixed. He also felt that this should represent its own category. 



Country of Birth
Player Name
Born overseas
Country
Parent/s born overseas
Mother
Father
Adelaide





Brodie
Smith
No

Yes
England
Scotland
Nathan
Van Berlo
No

Yes
New Zealand
New Zealand
Brisbane





Mitchell
Golby
No

Yes

England
Pearce 
Hanley
Yes
England
Yes
Wales
Ireland
Cian
Hanley
Yes
Ireland
WalesIreland
Ryan
Harwood
No

Yes
England

Ryan
Lester
No

Yes
England
South Africa
Matthew
Leuenberger
No

Yes

Switzerland
Jordan
Bourke
No

Yes
England

Dayne
Zorko
No

Yes

Yugoslavia
Carlton





Zach
Tuohy
Yes
Ireland
Yes
Ireland
Ireland
Sam
Docherty
No
Yes
Scotland
Ciaran
Byrne
Yes
Ireland
Yes
Ireland
Ireland
Ciaran
Sheehan
Yes
Ireland
Yes
Ireland
Ireland
Matthew
Dick
Yes
Scotland
Yes
Scotland
Collingwood





Tim
Broomhead
No
Yes
England
Mason
Cox
Yes
USA
USAUSA
Nathan
Freeman
No
Yes
Fiji
Fiji
Steele 
Sidebottom
No

Yes
England

Marley
Williams
No

Yes

New Zealand
Essendon





David 
Zaharakis
No

Yes

Greece
Mark
Baguley
No

Yes
England

James
Gwilt
No
Yes
PNG
Wales
Conor
McKenna
Yes
Ireland
Fremantle





Zachary
Clarke
No

Yes

USA
Sean
Hurley
Yes
Ireland
IrelandIreland
Garrick
Ibbotson
No

Yes
England

Chris
Mayne
No

Yes

England
Tendai
Mzungu
No

Yes

Zimbabwe
Alex
Silvagni
No

Yes
India

Hayden
Crozier
No

Yes

Sri Lanka
Anthony
Morabito
No

Yes
Italy

Geelong





Billie
Smedts
No

Yes
England
Holland
Jarrad
Jansen
Yes
 NZ
Yes
NZ
NZ
Padraig
Lucey
Yes
Ireland

IrelandIreland
Gold Coast





Tom 
Nicholls
No

Yes
Fiji

Danny
Stanley 
No

Yes
England

Aaron
Hall
No

Yes
Fiji

Daniel
Gorringe
No

Yes
Yugoslavia
England
David
Swallow
No

Yes
Netherlands
England
Nick
Malceski
No
Yes
Macedonia
GWS Giants





Phil 
Davis
No

Yes

England
Lachie
Whitfield
No

Yes

England
Rhys
Palmer
No

Yes

Scotland
Stephen
Coniglio
No

Yes
England

Hawthorn





Josh
Gibson
No

Yes

West Indies
David
Hale
No

Yes
Holland

Alex
Woodard
No

Yes
Phillipines

Sam
Mitchell
No

Yes

New Zealand
Paul
Puoplo
No

Yes

Italy
Liam
Shiels
No

Yes

Ireland
Shem-Kalvin
Tatupu
Yes
NZ
Yes
NZ
NZ
Kurt
Heatherly
Yes
NZ
Yes
NZ
NZ
Melbourne





Max 
Gawn
No

Yes
New Zealand
New Zealand
Jack
Watts
No

Yes
England
England
Christian
Salem
No

Yes
Lebanon
Lebanon
Heritier (Harry)
O'Brien
Yes
Brazil
Yes
Brazil
Democratic Republic of Congo
Nth Melb





Majak
Daw 
Yes
Sudan Khartoum
Yes
South Sudan
South Sudan
Michael
Firrito
No

Yes
Italy
Italy
Andrew
Swallow
No

Yes

England
Eric
Wallace
Yes
USA
USAUSA
Port Adelaide





Alipate
Carlile
Yes
Fiji
Yes
Fiji

Daniel
Flynn
Yes
Ireland
Yes
Ireland
Ireland
Cameron
O'Shea
No

Yes

Ireland
Jasper
Pittard
No

Yes
New Zealand

Paul
Stewart
No

Yes

Scotland
Mason
Shaw
No

Yes
England
Scotland
Oliver
Wines
No

Yes
PNG

Aaron
Young
No

Yes
England
Scotland
Richmond





Jake
Batchelor
No

Yes
Wales

Reece
Conca
No

Yes

Italy
Nick
Vlastuin
No

Yes

PNG
Matthew
McDonough
No

Yes
England

Bachar
Houli
No

Yes
Lebanon
Lebanon
Ivan
Maric
No

Yes
Croatia
Croatia
Shaun
Hampson
No

Yes
England
Matthew
Thomas
No

Yes
Seychelles
St Kilda





Farren
Ray
No

Yes
England

Nick
Riewoldt
No

Yes

Germany
Shane
Savage
Yes
NZ 
Yes
Pakeha
Maori
Jason
Holmes
Yes
USA
USAUSA
Cameron
Shenton
No

Yes
England

Sydney





Heath
Grundy
No

Yes
New Zealand

Jarrad 
McVeigh
No

Yes

England
Dane 
Rampe
No

Yes

Germany
Brandon
Jack
Yes
England
No


Michael
Pyke
Yes
Canada
No
Canada
Canada
Aliir
Aliir
No
Yes
Sudan
Sudan
Zac
Jones
No
Yes
Ireland
Ireland
West Coast





Patrick
Brophy
Yes
Ireland
Jack
Darling
No

Yes

South Africa
Nicholas
Naitanui
No

Yes
Fiji
Fiji
Brant
Colledge
Yes
France
No


Western Bulldogs





Jason
Johannissen
Yes
South Africa
Yes
Zambia
South Africa
Alex
Greenwood
No

Yes
Phillipines

Lin
Jong
No

Yes
Taiwan
East Timor
Nathan
Hrovat
No

Yes

Croatia
Daniel 
Pearce
Yes 
New Zealand
Yes
Holland
New Zealand
Tom
Boyd
No
Yes
Denmark
Australian