World Footy News

The AFL and Oceania AFL have played their part in creating initiatives for younger players to increase their involvement in the game. AFL Oceania is organising an Under 15 tournament which could feature teams from New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Nauru and Fiji in November this year.

Andrew Cadzow, responsible for much of the junior driven development in PNG, is now certainly making his mark across the wider region with his responsibility for AFL Oceania. In preparation, the NZAFL will hold under 15 school based tournaments in Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington in June 2009 all geared towards selecting a New Zealand team to compete in the Oceania tournament.

As a result of the Oceania U15s, a tournament side will look to enter the Australian system as early as July this year by providing a team in this year’s Australian Under 16 Championships. Originally entry was planned for 2010 but Oceania AFL is hoping to achieve early entry.

This is a magnificent opportunity and pathway for New Zealand based players and this, coupled with the new International Draft Laws, has certainly added momentum behind the AFL’s international vision.

The addition to the NZAFL High Performance now provides young New Zealanders with a participation pathway to follow after the ‘Kiwi Kick’ programmes targeting children aged between 5 to12. The NZAFL has expectations that future competitions and underage tournaments will improve in standard as the participation base grows.

The pathway at this stage is:-

NZAFL Under 15 School Tournaments in Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington from June 15th to June 19th, 2009 from which the Under 15 NPC Representative teams will be selected.

NZAFL Under 15 NPC Tournament will be held between July 6th to July 10th 2009. Then the Under 15 New Zealand team will be selected to compete in Oceania Tournament

AFL Oceania Under 15 Tournament will be held from November 2nd to November 6th 2009. From this tournament the Under 16 Oceania team will be selected to compete in Australian Under 16 Champs, July 2010

NZAFL Under 20 NPC tournament will be held from March 13th and 14th 2010 (the 2009 edition is on March 14th and 15th). The New Zealand Under 16 team will compete in the Under 20 NPC to keep the selected players for the Australian Under 16 Championships performing against higher level opposition.

The NZAFL firmly believe that the assistance and involvement received from AFL clubs is certain to provide fruit for their labour now there is such a comprehensive high performance pathway in place.