Filipino-Australian embraces footy culture

Neil Daculan has been in Australia for more than 20 years and has been a fan of AFL ever since and he invites other Filipinos to try out Touch Footy.

Neil Daculan of Philippine Team Kalabaws plays Touch Footy. Credit: Australian Football International

Key Points

• Western Bulldogs is Neil Daculan’s favourite team but he will cheer for Geelong Cats in the AFL Grand Final.
• His family supports different teams but they enjoy watching the AFL Grand Final together.
• He plays touch footy under the Philippine team called ‘Kalabaws’.

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Footy fever is on in Australia as everyone is waiting for the AFL Grand Final match between Geelong Cats and Sydney Swans.

Some Filipinos have been drawn into the footy culture and one of them is Neil Daculan from Melbourne who started watching when he came to Australia as an international student.

"I first got here in 1998 scholarship, I was doing my masters in Industrial relations in Melbourne Uni and then Vic Uni and that time I was in Footscray so I ended up supporting the Western Bulldogs, I'm a Western bulldogs fan," Neil shared.

Although Bulldogs is not in the final match, he will still watch and support Geelong Cats.

Neil Daculan and his family.

He treats watching the game as a family bonding time where the fun starts with having different favourite teams.

We have different teams that we like, my wife is a Saint Kilda fan, and my daughter is a Collingwood fan who lost last week by one point, so we tease each other most of the time.

AFL Fan Neil Daculan

Aside from being an AFL fan, Neil also plays for Philippine Team Kalabaws in the Touch Footy game.

"Touch footy is basically no tackling, it is not allowed. you will just need to hold the ball and then I touch you then you need to release the ball within 3 seconds."

Philippine Touch Footy Team Kalabaws Credit: Team Philippines AFL

According to Neil, Touch Footy is supported by AFL with coaching and training being offered to players. He says it's never too late to join.

"When I started playing footy, I started 50 years old. Now, my body aches already but we still keep on recruiting young people. We have new players that played the game in April and hopefully, old players will come back. Usually in touch footy, if you have around a maximum of 9 players or 7 players you can already play depending on the other team as well."

Neil Daculan plays Touch Footy. Credit: Australian Football International