World Footy News

PNG 15 year olds Victor Rame and Max Lavai this week visited Essendon, which according to our information signed them to international scholarships in February during a major dash for PNG talent (see AFL Clubs Sign another 6 of PNG’s Finest). The visit to Melbourne included a look around Windy Hill and meeting the Essendon senior list.

Rohan Connolly of Melbourne's The Age newspaper recently published an article titled International Rules OK, detailing many of the developments in international footy now impacting on the AFL, most of which have been covered in a variety of articles on WFN previously, but pleasingly are now getting a run in the biggest media publications. The information below comes from that article.

At Essendon Rame and Lavai met up with the third PNG representative at Windy Hill, David Meli. The 17-year-old, who has played for Queensland's under-16s and is playing TAC Cup with the Calder Cannons, is regarded by long-time recruiter Mark Browning as the most natural kick on either foot he's seen since Jason Akermanis. "David's enjoying it a lot. He said to me last night that in a few more years, he'll be a champion," Victor chuckles. "He's a very confident boy, David," Essendon recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro chips in.

Dodoro says Victor and Max are a good chance to make the Queensland under-16 side as Meli did before them, a pretty good start. "The advantage we've got with these two boys is we've got three years to develop them and get them to a comparable standard to boys of draftable age," he says. "We've got a great development program here, our sports science area will be working closely with them, there's huge scope. They're learning about our game, and we're learning about them. It's a two-way thing because if we're going down this non-traditional path we have to learn about their culture and see what works."

Another story on David Meli featured in the Sunbury Leader, see Essendon rookie making his mark.