The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS welcomed over 120 newly arrived migrants and refugees participating in the Intensive English Centers Cup (IEC) to Blacktown Olympic Park today.

The IEC Cup coincides with National Refugee Week and is run by the AFL for newly arrived migrant students, providing them with an opportunity to experience a different sport as they make friends and settle into their new home.

The students come from a variety of different countries including Afghanistan, China, Vietnam, Korea, Sudan, Ghana, Thailand and many others.

GWS GIANTS Senior Assistant coach, Mark Williams spoke volumes of the IEC Cup at today’s event and the opportunity that it offers new Australians to become involved in the community and develop their sporting skills in a social setting.

“I’m actually a physical education teacher by trade so I really understand the opportunities that sport gives you when you bring kids together, particularly in footy.

“Footy is a fantastic way of helping to integrate people from different cultures into Australia. It’s fantastic to see kids from all over the globe here today.

“This is a great opportunity to show how warm and embracing the AFL is and Australia can be and to get them to understand some of the cultures of our game.”

Since arriving at the GIANTS in late 2010, Williams has taken an avid interest in the diversity of the Western Sydney area, looking to GIANTS recruit Israel Folau, who is of Tongan decent and was born in Minto, as a source of information.

“I’ve been learning a bit from Israel. I talk to him about what his family and friends know about the AFL. Israel’s parents don’t know much about the AFL and we need to show them the skills, what the rules are, what the umpires are doing and the scoring system.”

Williams also can really see the benefits to the GWS GIANTS of educating Western Sydney’s multicultural community, as the club has zoned access to recruit young talent from the region and are also building their supporter base in the area.

“There are 1.9 million people living in Western Sydney and over 100 different nationalities. Out here it’s an untapped market for us. We’re really lucky to be out here.

“We want these people to be able to get in and barrack at the footy or have a chat in the work place about what happened on the weekend. If we can find some players in here as well, that would be great.

“You look around at the AFL now and you see so many people from so many different cultures playing and that just shows you what a massive opportunity it is.

“You can see that some of the kids here today are really fast and have some great strength in high jump. If we can take some of the attributes of their individual cultures and teach them how to play football, we can find some great stars of the future.”

Williams is under no illusions about the magnitude of the task that the GIANTS face but he insists that the club and the AFL are committed to educating the people of Western Sydney about the AFL.

“It won’t be one week or one month or one year even, it will be a generational change and it will take time.

“We will take the time to develop the understanding of the people in this area so they can follow and play the game.

“The AFL knows that this is a different setting to the other states and we’ve got to bend over backwards to show them that we care about them learning the game and not just say ‘there the game is’. We need to break it down.

“This way, it’s them going to the footy and belonging and feeling like they understand the game. Once we help them with that, they’ll love it too.”