World Footy News

Australian Football has long received coverage in Papua New Guinea, but it's pleasing to see increasing amounts of media. A story on 6th July - "Aussie rules expands globally" - by Mike Hedge in the main PNG newspaper The National covered much of the ground that WFN has been bringing to its online audience. In an excellent rare mainstream media summary of the game, Hedge reported: "While the reaction to the success of the Socceroos is proof that Australians have embraced the world game, there is more and more evidence that the world is embracing the Australian game". The story mentions many of the Australian Football programs around the world.

The story also noted the recent registration of the 10,000th Aussie Rules player in PNG and that young Papuan Stanis Susuve who won selection in the under-16 Qld Country representative team, is well in the race to be the first AFL player to have started his footy career in a non-Australian Aussie Rules league. The story gives a good synopsis of the current spread of the game and includes an interview with AFL Development Manager, Dave Matthews. It can be read here.