World Footy News

Whilst the Fijian news outlets have been providing almost wall to wall coverage of their boys in Tonga, back in Australia – there’s been barely a ripple. Today that’s changed with the News Ltd papers carrying features on Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau.

In Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, there’s a combined feature on Izzy and Karmichael Hunt – Izzy’s Trip an AFL winner.

In Melbourne’s Herald Sun, they ran two separate stories.

Israel Folau the image of an AFL here

Folau, who addressed the Tongan team during its win against the Solomon Islands, said: "I wouldn't have thought I'd be back here in Tonga, promoting AFL. It's exciting for me and the game."

Karmichael Hunt can’t wait to start AFL season

Hunt has spent the past few days in Tonga promoting Australian Football at the Youth Oceania Cup alongside Greater Western Sydney's Israel Folau and the Eagles' Nic Naitanui. Hunt says being a face of the code does not put any extra pressure on him to succeed. He is a footballer first and a frontman second.

and

Hunt has been left excited - and exhausted - by his first pre-season in AFL after returning home from a stint in French rugby mid-year.

And from RadioAustralia, AFL recruiting campaign rolls into Tonga

This article includes an interviews by Geraldine Coutts with AFL International Development manager Tony Woods as well as Karmichael Hunt. Both the transcript and the audio is available.

Tony Woods : I mean in the short to medium term, we accept it's a long journey, and we're really only just starting it. So at this stage it's very much about building participation, getting kids playing the game. But it probably comes as a surprise to a lot of people that already there's 35-40-thousand kids throughout the Pacific actually playing AFL, which is really exciting, gives us a good base. And then the more investment and focus we would put into those developing competitions, you start to then look at achieving talent outcomes. And then over time, the reality is we're here for the Oceania under-16 championships, where it's seven countries represented as stand alone teams. So who knows, in 15, 20, 25 years there's actually an AFL team playing somewhere out of the Pacific..