While it may be football off-season in Australia, the AFL India season is reaching its climax with the National Championship being held in Kolkata this weekend.
 
With 200 players converging on the West Bengal capital from seven states across India, the GIANTS will be well represented with the Maharashtra GIANTS pulling on the orange and charcoal jumper.
 
It’s no easy tournament for the GIANTS, who will travel 36 hours by train to get to Kolkata to take part in the fourth annual championships.

The Maharashtra Giants junior team will be looking to add to the title they won in 2013.
 
The GIANTS will be up against teams with other AFL club links including the Bengal Tigers, the Jharkhand Crows, the Odisha Swans, the Rajasthan Eagles, the Kerala Bombers and Tamil Nadu Kangaroos.

The junior and senior teams will receive special training from former Collingwood premiership player Gavin Crosisca who is returning to India after also taking part in the 2013 championships.
 
India is well known as a cricket mad nation, but Australian Football continues to grow in popularity on the sub-continent, as evidenced by the many venues showing the AFL Grand Final earlier this month.
 
The GWS GIANTS have helped get the Maharashtra GIANTS to the championships by donating a signed jumper which has raised over 44,500 rupees (just under $A1000) thanks to the generosity of Peter Baldwin (WA Trade and Investment Office), Geoff Wilson (BlueScope Steel) and Steve Hollow (SBI General).
 
This money will be used to help fund the team’s travel from Mumbai as well as essential parts of the team’s kit including boots, jumpers and shorts.
 
The Maharashtra GIANTS are part of a network of GIANTS teams across the globe, including other affiliated clubs the Dongguan GIANTS (China), South East London GIANTS (England), the North Leinster GIANTS (Ireland), the Zaprude GIANTS (Croatia) and the Skane GIANTS (Sweden).
 
Stay across the AFL India national championship via Facebook.com/AFL.in.India, Twitter.com/AFLIndia and aflindia.org