Bulldogs coach weighs in as club linked to playing in India
Updated . First published
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has backed the club’s interest in potentially hosting the first ever AFL game for premiership points in India.
Club CEO Ameet Bains initially put the idea on the radar, telling News Corp they would put their hand up if the opportunity arose.
Luke Beveridge is keen for the Bulldogs to play in India. Getty
AFL boss Andrew Dillon flew to India in January, meeting with key stakeholders and refusing to rule out the prospect of future games.
“Nearly one million people in Australia were born in India, so it’s really important for the AFL as we continue to grow that we engage with the Indian diaspora,” Dillon said at the time.
“What we want to do now is establish the footholds. We’ve got an emerging player participation over in India. It’s exciting to see the way it has grown at a participation level.”
Beveridge believes it would be an exciting opportunity for the club if it ever came together.
“You’d probably have to time it maybe before a bye, that’d be ideal,” the Bulldog coach told reporters on Thursday.
“When you think about the Indian passion for cricket, and then the groundswell of attention that’s coming towards our game.
“They’ve got the grounds to be able to pull it off too. It’d be pretty exciting.
“It’d be an exciting adventure, a huge performance challenge to be able to go over there, play, come back, and either side of that be able to win and stay on top of things.
“We feel like we’ve got a good relationship with the Indian community and that we’d be interested if there was a game that was going to be organised over there, which may or may not happen.
“The actual absolute dedication to what we do with our community foundation is the main thing and the possibility of a game is just secondary.”
Collingwood rookie Jai Saxena became the first player of full Indian descent to be drafted by a club, joining the Pies in 2025.
Jai Saxena of the Magpies at training. Getty
Richmond and GWS have reportedly also expressed interest in getting involved, should the opportunity arise.
Aussie rules is currently played in 11 of India’s 28 states. Dillon attended the AFL India championships in Ranchi in January.
The AFL has had a crack at playing games outside of Australia before, with minimal success.
St Kilda hosted games in New Zealand across 2013, 2014 and 2015 before ultimately throwing in the towel.
Port Adelaide then hosted games in China in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but that experiment ended abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
