The first television broadcasts of matches by the Australia Network began in 2002. In the period 2004-2008, a proposal for a serious ongoing Australian Rules football competition was mooted by former Fiji Police Commissioner, Andrew Hughes. Hughes had played footy at various amateur levels in Australia and was keen to promote it when he arrived in Fiji to take up his post as the nation’s top cop. In mid-2004, Hughes, based in Suva, called a meeting within the Fiji police force of officers interested in assisting with his vision of using the force itself as the basis for developing and promoting a local footy competition. According to one who was present at that initial meeting in the Police Officers Mess, ‘Hughes himself was to be the trainer and teacher’ of the new code. A second meeting was held in Lautoka for interested officers based in the West. According to the Police Public Relations Officer at the time, Mesake Koroi , ‘many top rugby players joined in and it started off well, but there was no one except Hughes to run the so it was hard because, of course, he had other police work to attend to’. This then was the first effort to establish the sport in Fiji. The Fijian Australian Football Association was formed as a governing body but the sheer weight of workload for Hughes meant the FAFA went into recess without creating an organised league. (A failed bid was made for inclusion of the sport into the 2007 South Pacific Games held in Fiji.). Meanwhile, the Western Bulldogs became the first AFL club to actively scouting for recruits in Fiji. This project was later announced to begin with open trials in Suva and Labasa in October of that year 2004. 16 year-old Solomon Loki and 19 year-old Inoke Ratu were added to the Western Bulldogs International scholarship lists. They were not able to take up their offers regrettably because of visa obstructions arising out of Fiji's 2006 coup.