World Footy News

The 2010 David Rodan Cup for Secondary Schools took place on Saturday October 23. http://FijiLive.com reports that the ‘Hawks’ squad won the event. However, as per the link the Grand Final score is written as Tigers 48-12 Hawks. However I’m assuming that to be a typo.

It is stated that ..more than 80 students from 14 different schools in Suva and Nausori were represented, and grouped into 6 teams that played in round robin matches.

However, looking at the results, it looks like Pool A comprised Saints, Bulldogs, Magpies and Tigers, and that Pool B comprised Hawks, Bombers, Lions and Roos.

That to my count is 8 teams!!

Results:

Pool A

Saints 43-24 Bulldogs, Magpies 11-4 Tigers, Saints 27-32 Tigers, Bulldogs 30-13 Magpies, Saints 17-22 Magpies, Bulldogs 15-20 Tigers

Pool B

Hawks 22-7 Bombers, Lions 18-Roos, Hawks 37-9 Roos, Hawks 25-15 Lions, Bombers 24-15 Lions, Bombers 22-15 Roos

Playoffs: Bulldogs 42-33 Roos, Saints 20-18 Lions, Magpies 40-45 Bombers Grand final: Hawks 48-12 Tigers.

Meanwhile, Saturdays FijiTimes reported Another Fijian flyer to join footy club , David Rodan stating that There will be a scholarship awarded to one Fijian player but he has to make the Fiji team to the Oceania championship in Tonga and impress the scouts."

The build up that was reported by WFN earlier this week continued later in the week. On Thursday http://FijiLive.com reported AFL stars excited to watch Fijians in action which focused on David Rodan and Alipate Carlile being ..in the country to ‘officiate’ at the tournament and to conduct clinics as well as select the Fiji Under-16 team to play in the Oceania AFL tournament in Tonga later this year.

On Friday, http://FijiLive.com carried two further stories, Carlile proud to develop AFL further in Fiji and also Youngsters look forward to Rodan Cup. The latter featuring 14 year old Tomasi Simon and 13 year old Samual Mudaliar who would be the youngest competitor on Saturday.

Simon attends Lelean Memorial School were ‘rugby dominates’, “It is really hard because boys at school all play rugby, we have heard of AFL but no one has really gotten the courage to try out the sport because rugby’s been the sport to play,” Simon says.

“When AFL Fiji conducted clinics at school, a group of us decided to give it a try and we found out that it isn’t hard at all. The rules are a bit different but it’s easy to understand, I love it.”

Meanwhile, Mudaliar, the only Indo-Fijian of the 40 early registrations (prior to the day) was looking for a new sport to take up after leaving basketball and baseball behind in America when his family migrated to Fiji in 2007.

“I was looking for a sport to take, I had school but I wanted to take up a sport. When they came to conduct clinics, I saw it as an opportunity to learn something new and I have never looked back since then.”