World Footy News

The 2015 AFL Under 15 Oceania Cup is tonight gearing up after the arrival of competing teams. Being again held in Fiji, the action gets underway tomorrow at Furnivale Park in Toorak (Suva). Once again the opening day is a lightning premiership format.

This years tournament sees 4 teams playing. Tonga, Fiji and Nauru have full squads while the 4th side is the Pacific All Stars. The tournament will wind up on Thursday with finals after lunch followed after presentations by an exhibition match between the Fiji U/14s and the U/14 Australian Wanderers.

The usual venue at Albert Park in Suva is under construction works which is why the alternate venue is being used.

The four sides competing this year all have reason to be confident – previews below from AFL Pacific’s Ben Drew:

All 4 u/15 teams will be very strong this year!
• Fiji tribe are the defending champions, their expansion in development programs has meant more participants at their selection trials. Fiji Cup day this year was the biggest one yet with over 200 15yr old boys competing as well as an u/16 female division!
• Tonga Thunder are always a tough side physically. In 2015 AFL Tonga has been fortunate to have Luke Cadzow (AVID) in country to support and drive their development programs, the Tonga thunder side has been training for the last 8 weeks preparing to surprise the competition this year.
• Nauru Stars once again will be a very strong side! These boys are coming off the U/14 & U/16 junior AFL Nauru seasons, they will be match fit and ready to go. Their coach Zack Temaki is back again and the team have been working hard to go 1 better in 2015.
• Pacific All Stars are the wild card within the 4 sides. A team of hand selected talented boys will be super competitive in this year’s competition.

Unfortunately both Vanuatu and Solomon Islands were unable to bring sides over.

The Oceania Cup is the first big step along the AFL South Pacific Talent pathway. 10-15 players from this tournament will be invited to participate in the U/16 AFL South Pacific Talent camp in May next year (2016). Being held on Queenslands Sunshine coast, part of the talent camp will be competing as the U/16 South Pacific side in the QLD U/16 state championships – joining 10-15 players selected from PNG also taking part in the camp.

The FIjiSun online this weekend reported the lead up - Fijians Rate Nauru. Fiji of course held out Nauru to win the 2014 tournament. The tournament has had some format changes over the years as the list of winners in part illustrates: Tonga (2009), PNG (2010), NZ (2011), Fiji (2012) and Nauru (2013) before Fiji backed up last year.

The Nauru Stars departed Sunday afternoon resplendent in new gear displaying the support of key sponsors Digicel and Capelle & Partners along with vital Government support with assistance on airfares. As the only nation in the world with Australian Football as their national game it is almost a requirement that Nauru be in attendance.