Ballarat’s Shaun Boag and Rylan Rattley have helped the Philippines achieve Australian rules football history.
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Boag and Rattley were part of the country’s breakthrough success in the AFL Asia Championships, held in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.
The pair played a key role in the Philippine Eagles’ triumph – the country’s first at the annual titles – with the team toppling two Asian powerhouses in the finals.
The Eagles beat Hong Kong by 10 points in the semi final and then defeated Singapore by five in the decider.
Boag, a former coach at Maryborough Castlemaine District side Campbells Creek, has been working in the Philippines, where he has spent the season playing football.
With the Eagles in need of a ruckman for the championships, Boag called on current Smythesdale teammate Rattley to help the cause.
Rattley, a dual winner of The Courier’s Central Highlands Football League player of the year award, enjoyed an outstanding tournament which saw him finish as runner-up in the player of the series standings.
Boag said Rattley was the “standout ruckman” of the competition, while admitting he performed “solidly” in his role at full back.
Former Ballarat footballer Anthony Evans, who played with St Kilda and Footscray during the 1980s, was part of the Eagles’ coaching panel.
“People think it’s just a bunch of Aussies going on holiday playing a football competition, but the reality is that to the locals that created the league and set it up, it meant so much to them,” Boag said of the triumph.
“In Vietnam there’s over 500 people playing AFL football, which is pretty significant considering it’s outside the Australian boundaries.”
In a huge year for the Philippines, the country also won the Manila Cup – a carnival against the top Asian countries – for the first time.
While his employment has now finished in the Philippines, Boag is already eyeing a return to play football next year.