Aussie rules: Wellington set to host AFL matches

The Western Bulldogs are looking at playing games at Wellington’s Basin Reserve. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - The Western Bulldogs Australian Football League club are planning to stage matches in Wellington in a bid to increase the sport's popularity in New Zealand.

Campbell Rose, chief executive of the Melbourne based franchise, hoped the games could be held at the capital's Basin Reserve within two years.

Wellington has been identified as an alternative to the Bulldogs current `homes away from home' - Darwin and Canberra.

"I think there is a real opportunity for Melbourne and Wellington to establish a kindred, sister city relationship with our sport," Rose told The Australian newspaper.

AFL football has been played in New Zealand but only in exhibition pre-season matches, never as part of the actual premiership.

Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs played there in the summer of 2000, as Melbourne and Sydney did in the pre-season of 1998.

Most recently, Brisbane and Adelaide squared off in Wellington in 2001.

- NZPA