World Footy News

 

We welcome new contributor Frederick Shaibani.  We recommend you check out Frederick's Blog Letters from Las Cruces to read more.  The original post for this article can be seen here.  Frederick is a member of the Los Angeles Dragons Football Club. In this article Frederick takes a look at the story of footy in the Pacific nation of Fiji.

One of the most sport-crazed countries in the Pacific, the islands of Fiji have long lacked a presence in Aussie rules football. It’s overshadowed significantly by rugby union, the Fijian national sport, but footy has made some strong gains in recent years.

AFL matches were first televised in Fiji in 2002, and the league saw that there was potential to reach the Fijian population and help establish footy as both a spectator sport and a participation sport. By 2005, the Fiji Daily Post had beat writers covering AFL games, in addition to the much more established sports of rugby union, rugby league, and netball.

Around the same time, a group of Aussie police officers stationed near the Fijian capital of Suva helped get some local athletes involved. The Aussies founded the Fijian Australian Football Association (FAFA) that year, with the goal of keeping it as the national governing body for footy. They attempted to get a national footy team into the 2007 South Pacific Games, which were being held in Fiji, but they couldn’t qualify in time due to a lack of players and funding. The FAFA went on hiatus as they attempted to organize a local competition.

 

Gold Coast SUNS CEO Andrew Travis today welcomed Tourism Australia’s partnership of the SUN’S game against Port Adelaide to be played in Shanghai in May.

Australian Community Football Operations Manager, Andrew Hughes, told EMTV Sports that the 2014 AFL International Cup Champions, the PNG Mosquitoes, are looking forward to defending their International Cup title.

Hughes said, tournaments will be hosted to make selections for top players to form the final squad, which will go into training in preparations from August 5th to the 19th in Melbourne, Australia.

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Irish defender for the Melbourne Demons Laura Duryea was charged by the match review panel with engaging in rough conduct against Ellie Blackburn of the Western Bulldogs, during the fourth quarter of the match at the VU Whitten Oval on Saturday.

Fortunately Laura was able to accept a reprimand with an early guilty plea. After speaking to the umpire who made a report on match-day, and based on the available video evidence and a medical report from the Western Bulldogs Football Club, the incident was assessed as careless conduct with low impact to the head.

The incident was classified as a one-week sanction. As Laura had no applicable record which impacts the penalty (fortunately being sent off in the IC14 grand final does not count against her). Laura's early plea enabled her to accept a reprimand.

The Nauru All Stars have started their two match tour with a big win over the The Zillmere Eagles by 12 goals.  

The young Stars stood out with their speed and agility around the field, which became too much for the Eagles. Young Jeremiah Kam, Niga Haulangi and veteran Timothy Teabuge dominated in defence while Donatello Moses and Yoshi Harris did most of the damage up forward. 

Vice captain Mallinson Batsiua using his strength and experience to dominate the centre clearances.

Yoshi Harris won the All Stars Coach's best on ground while Niga Haulangi awarded Zillmere Eagles vote for best player.

Back in December the initial French squad for this year’s IC17 in Melbourne was announced. But that list has now been trimmed and sorted and the official men’s team from France has been announced.

Coached by Andrew Unsworth (Paris Cockatoos/Cockerels), the squad boasts an even representation across all CNFA clubs. In the selected squad there are players from: Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes (4), ALFA Lions (4), Bordeaux Bombers (4), Paris Cockerels (2), Paris Cockatoos (4), Perpignan Tigers (2), Toulouse Hawks (4), Blagnac Aviators (2). The list of reserves also boasts two Lions, two Hawks, two Bombers and one Tiger player.

The good, old-fashioned local derby appeared in Toulouse on the weekend with a double-header featuring both Toulouse teams facing both Paris teams. In a sense it was a battle of the split teams with the Blagnac Aviators growing from the depth of the Toulouse Hawks and the Paris Cockatoos being brought to life in a similar way from the depth of the Paris Cockerels.

The match of the day finished up with a thriller as the Toulouse Hawks brought back happy memories from not too long ago when they downed the Paris Cockerels. Toulouse had no finals to play for, having long falling out of that race. But they can still have a say in which teams do play finals – and the Cockerels found that out the hard way.

To recognise and commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin during World War Two, the AFLNT dedicated the final round of the NTFL season to the memory of one of the blackest days in Australian history. Accordingly, all teams involved in matches this weekend played in the spirit of the people of Darwin in the wake of the event in 1942 – tough, resilient and uncompromising.

It was a round of upsets, or near upsets, as the lowly, seemingly undermanned teams fought the odds to bring down opponents that many thought they couldn’t.

(Picture: Australian Geographic)

The following is a story from EMTV in PNG.  It details the great work being done by AFL PNG staff along with development officers from Australia as they conducted coaching clinics this week in Port Moresby.    

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Like all teams that mean to make a statement, the Tyne Tees Tigers in the AFLCNE (Australian Football League Central & Northern England) competition are about to embark on a rigorous pre-season campaign. Undeterred by their placings in their initial seasons, the Tigers have used everything to date as a learning experience and will fine tune in coming weeks as they travel backwards and forwards between Newcastle and Scotland.

After a promising end to the 2015 season, winning four of their last five games, the Tigers stalled a little in 2016, finishing in sixth place with just two wins. The season would have exposed a range of areas for improvement, and that is just about to happen.

Below is the EMTV story from last month's ground breaking ceremony for AFL PNG ahead of the construction of the new footy facility including the field.

The construction of the new dedicated footy facility will feature a social area, changing facility, gym, and more.


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In a move aimed at raising the standards and opportunities for footballers across the United Kingdom, AFL England announced yesterday the details of the inaugural National Cup, set for September. The following article from AFL England details the aims and structure of an event which is sure to have a positive and wide-reaching impact on the game. 

On Thursday 16th February 2017 AFL England have announced their latest national competition – The National Cup. 

 

The National Cup will be a first of its kind in the UK with a full draft, regional teams and the first Premier of the UK will be crowned. Head of Performance, Jason Hill, announced the competition this evening and had this to say, “The National Cup will become a way for us to raise the standard of Men and Women’s footy across the British Isles. After conversations with the committees of Wales and Scotland they were keen to be involved and we are proud to be able to showcase the talent that the British leagues have to offer. We’re keen for our players to learn from one another, whether British, Australian or any other nationality, and create a competition where we get the best players, playing the best footy against the best opposition”.