World Footy News

Groups attempting to establish football programs outside of Australia face many issues, with sustainability particularly hard to achieve. Many clubs and associations will form, only to have disbanded or be on hiatus a few years later. A proven technique for developing a senior team has been a solid junior foundation. Denmark’s junior program in Farum is now paying dividends for both the club’s senior and national sides. The Vikings recently thrashed a German outfit, with 18 year-old Nicolai Secher starring.

Samoa is another football-playing nation aware of the value of junior competition. They have been running a tournament for High School students and clinics for Primary School students for several years now, and have taught thousands about the Australian brand of football. With a population of less than 200,000 Samoa has one of the highest participation rates of football per capita, outside of Australia. Below we look at Samoa's burgeoning junior football program.

The Schoolboys Championship was first held in 1998 and this year involved two divisions, Metro and Rural. The Rural division involved the Leulomoega Lions, Nuuausala Demons, Leulomoega Kangaroos and the Paul 6 Tigers, whilst the Metro division involved the St. Joseph’s Hawks, Faleata Bombers, Leififi Falcons and the Leififi All Blacks. Following the three-round regular fixture, the highest placed team in each division compete for the Championship and 2007 saw the Leififi Falcons overcome Nuuausala. Faleata’s Bernie Tunofo was voted the competition's Best and Fairest, edging out Prodogi Lomitusi.

The Primary School clinics have been just as encouraging. 1200 primary school students partook in term 3 programs, with a further 1353 booked in for term 4. Belmore North recently won the Paul Kelly Cup, New South Wales’ junior- schools competition. Their squad contained several children of Samoan ethnicity. Senior Samoan expatriates have performed solidly in Australia’s suburban leagues, in particular the Southern Football League and more recently the Ellinbank & District Football League.

AFL Samoa’s Game Development Officer, Michael Roberts has even managed to establish a program called 'Be Our Guest' which incorporates the equivalent of an AFL level 1 coaching accreditation into the National University of Samoa’s Sport Science degree. They are currently seeking official recognition from the AFL.

Roberts was kind enough to share with us some of the organisation’s aims for next year. These included teaching football to as many as 5000 children, expanding their Schoolboys Championship to include church and village-affiliated school teams and ultimately to have it recognised as one of the island’s official High School programs from 2008. Roberts also hopes to secure a scholarship to Australia for one of their developing juniors, who will be nabbed by rugby union's talent identification programs otherwise (and the NFL is also currently scouting Samoa for potential recruits). Organisation has begun on the scholarship and more information will follow once it comes to hand, although we can confirm that Lomitusi Leituala looks like being one of the first recipients. He is a fifteen year old that already stands at 6'3". Leituala was the youngest player in the Schoolboys Championship and displayed "greater athleticism and potential than anyone else in the tournament".