March 7, 2009
AFRL announce two year deal with KooGa

The AFRL announced on Friday that it will be ending its current deal with apparel company Errea after recently signing a two year deal with KooGa. The decision was made at the first meeting of the new 2009 board and will take effect immediately after the 2009 Kiama 9’s.
 
The new AFRL board is very excited about the partnership with KooGa and through this partnership feels that having the AFRL aligned with a prominent Rugby brand such as KooGa will help gain more brand recognition and exposure for the AFRL and help with the AFRL’s ambitions to push its apparel and merchandise range through the right distribution channels particularly in the retail area.
 
KooGa is experiencing unprecedented attention throughout the Rugby and Rugby League world with the vast number of teams it is doing globally and particularly here in Australia with the two prominent NRL teams it has in the Newcastle Knights and the Melbourne Storm. KooGa also has wonderful brand association with teams in Fiji doing both the Fijian Rugby Union and League teams and this may open up retail opportunities in Fiji which would be huge for the AFRL. At the end of the day such an opportunity was seen to be too good to pass up by the AFRL Board and a deal was signed between the two organisations.
 
KooGa Sales Rep. Mick Berne who sealed the deal between the two parties was ecstatic to have the Australian Fijians on board with KooGa and saw a real fit between the two parties right from the start.
 
“I attended the Petero Civinoceva Medal Night in January and was real impressed with what I saw and the level of professionalism that was put in by the AFRL and the people involved. I knew that this was the sort of organisation that we wanted on board with KooGa and the opportunities that we would be able to present to each other with would be huge. At the end of the day it was probably a common sense decision for both parties to work together in a relationship that we can both see as being a real win/win for all involved. I’m really looking forward to working with the AFRL for the next two years and beyond.”
 
 
 
 
 The AFRL will begin working on its new merchandise range immediately that will be available for sale in the coming weeks on the AFRL’s website www.afrl.com.au and will officially launch its new jersey at the next AFRL Fundraiser to be held at Mascot RSL on June 27.