Aussie rules football: Port Adelaide Power beat Gold Coast Suns in China

Port Adelaide Power play Gold Coast Suns in Shanghai as the AFL tries to tap into the China market

China hosted its first competitive Australian rules match as Port Adelaide Power beat Gold Coast Suns 110-38 in Shanghai.

The match was also the first time an Australian Football League (AFL) regular season game had been staged outside Australia and New Zealand.

Some 10,118 fans watched the match.

"They're gasping, I think they love the hard hits and it's a pretty entertaining game of footy," said AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.

Chinese fans watch as Port Adelaide Power play Gold Coast Suns in Shanghai

The match, which was shown on one of the three local television channels, cost an estimated $4m Australian dollars (£2,291,256) to host.

Port, who have Chinese backers, are reported to have paid three quarters of the cost, while they also gave the Suns $500,000 (£286,407) to shift their home match away from the Gold Coast to the Jiangwan Stadium.

About 5,000 of the crowd were made up of Port's fans who travelled to Shanghai.

"The opportunity is enormous," said McLachlan.

"It's the opportunity of speaking to Chinese companies who are wanting to do business in Australia.

"We want to have a relationship with them for our game to grow. We want to invest in this long-term and the aim is (for) this not to be a one-off."