World Footy News

The lifeblood of future Australian Rules football competitions world-wide is and will increasingly be the development of junior pathways. Ultimately, it will not be enough for the game to grow simply through ex-pat Australians overseas and local converts. To prosper, rather than stagnate or fall away, the leagues and clubs need the infusion of youth as its supply line.

Already there are increasing signs worldwide of Auskick clinics or similar growing across Europe, the USA, across Asia, Oceania and even in Chile, South America, across African countries and the Middle East. Almost everywhere the game is played junior programs of one sort or another are appearing to develop the next generation of players.

One more recent example has been the development of a junior program in Sweden at the Södermalm Blues club in suburban Stockholm. A recent chat with Jonas Raninen, Södermalm Vice President and Junior Team Manager, unearthed the background and logistics of their program, including potential for further growth and a vision for the future.

It is just possible that Australian Rules footy in Iceland saw our game in the most dramatically beautiful country on earth. With its amazing mix of sub-Arctic, volcanic, coastal, mountain and beautifully rural scenery combined with charming cities and people, our game was given an incredible backdrop.

But, sadly, beauty isn’t enough to sustain sport, especially a sport with a lower profile than others, and the game in Iceland is in a state of decline after having made significant steps in recent years. The reality of life is that people need to work to live and this fact impacts on all teams at some point. In a country like Iceland where the game was very fragile due to the “newness” of the game and relatively low numbers, a few personnel moves can mean the difference between maintaining the code or seeing it fall away.

In chatting recently to Sölvi Sigmarsson, General manager of AFL Iceland and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Akureyri in the north of the country, near the Arctic Circle (see story – Footy Beneath the Arctic Circle – Akureyri, Iceland) he is honest in his appraisal of the game in Iceland.

Tijs Lejeune is a Year 12 student in Canberra. For his English subject he was asked to write a paper which reflected his area of sporting or community interest – in this case his desire to learn more about the multicultural and international aspects of Australian Rules football - recognise a challenge faced by the code in its growth and look at possible solutions.

 

Tijs’ use of the metaphor of the extinct Dodo on Mauritius is a powerful metaphor for the negative growth of our game if suitable care is not taken. Whilst Tijs expresses some views which are not necessarily endorsed by World Footy News or the broader AFL, it is a very interesting take on a possible future of our great game.

 

 

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, but I look at how the dodo became extinct and worryingly I see some similarities with the AFL. Factors like: undisturbed for so long on the island of Mauritius, no natural predators for so long, restricted to a small inhabitable area and the inability to escape when danger confronted it.

Elephants play footy at Wanneroo AFC, Perth, WA. in effort to promote and develop Aussie Footy Internationally.

Earlier this year in July two Laotian Australian Rules footballers played an invitational match for Wanneroo Amateur Football Club in Perth, Western Australia.

Story following courtesy of AFL Asia.

Years of planning and fundraising has finally paid off for two Aussie Rules clubs thousands of kilometers and oceans apart. Through the efforts of Wanneroo Amateur FC legend and current Laos Elephants President Steve Chapman, two Laos Elephants have been given the trip of a lifetime and in doing so, creating a strong bond between the two clubs.

After playing in Wanneroo’s 2010 Premiership, “Chappy” ventured off into a remote mine site in Laos and has not looked back, being a key driver of the Laos Elephants successful local development program.

In a season many people at Essendon would rather forget, there were a few little gems here and there which lifted spirits and gave a pointer to a far better future. One of those was the initial form of young 19 year old Irish recruit, Conor McKenna. After being recruited late in 2015 as an international Category B Rookie, few had many high expectations regarding his debut season.

But the youngster got a taste of the “big league” back in the NAB Challenge matches pre-season. He had some touches, but is best remembered for his dual 50 metre penalty infringements which gifted St Kilda a goal. An inauspicious start, to be sure, but as his season progressed, so did his game sense, contribution and impact on his adopted game.

The Carlton Football Club has signed US basketballer Matt Korcheck as a Category B International Rookie.

Korcheck, who stands at 6”10 (208cm) and weighs 105kg, caught the eye of recruiters at a Florida screening camp in April this year. He was later invited to train with the Blues and spent three weeks at Ikon Park in August.

The 23-year old, who previously played Division 1 College Basketball for the Arizona Wildcats, hasn’t played much ‘Aussie Rules’ but Carlton’s GM List Management Stephen Silvagni says Korcheck has shown great potential.

The footy season is nearly at an end, or in some cases finished, for most of the competitions across Scandinavian countries. Whilst the Norway final of the Kenguru Cup was completed earlier this month, the season in Finland finished on the weekend and the codes in Stockholm, Sweden and in Denmark come to an end in the next week or two.

NORWAY
As previously reported by World Footy News, the Norwegian season came to a close with the completion of the 2015 Kenguru Cup Ås Battlers Take Norway’s Kenguru Cup Crown. The Ås Battlers defeated the Oslo West team by just just three points to take their second flag in three years. The Battlers had to overcome the fact that the Oslo West team had dominated the competitive rounds of the Kenguru Cup, but come finals time it was the better team on the day. It was a true changing of the guard for the Norwegian teams with Oslo East, the most dominant club in recent seasons, missing the grand final and allowing the Oslo West team their first ever grand final appearance.

Last month saw the “Battle Of Three Armies”, to borrow from Peter Jackson, when teams from Austria and Germany met in Prague, Czech Republic, for a tournament. It is the first such event between the three teams and marks another innovative approach to footy competition across European clubs.

The AFL Europe website stated that, “the 8th of August saw an Inaugural 3 Cities Tournament hosted by the Czech Lions in Prague. Taking part were the Dresden Wolves, from Dresden, Germany and the Styrian DownUnder Dogs from Graz, Austria. The three game round robin tournament saw the Lions take out the top prize, the DownUnder Dogs come in second and the Wolves third.”

An editorial from Rob de Santos the Chairman of AFANA on the future of Australian football in North America.  This editorial original appeared at www.afana.com  on August 30, 2015.

A week ago the first American, born and raised in the United States, make it to the top level of football down under. I hope that these closing weeks of the AFL season will see Jason Holmes (and perhaps Mason Cox, also) do enough to stay there in coming seasons. It's been a long wait. Twenty years for fans. We've also seen the conclusion of a huge new domestic TV contract for the AFL. It's also a milestone year for AFANA. Two decades of promoting the growth of Aussie rules in North America. From scrambling to save one hour of one week delayed highlights on US / Canadian television back in 1996 to having 12 hours per week of live coverage in the USA & 3 hours in per week in Canada plus highlights and repeats now. We have seen six networks come and go in that time. It's been a long journey.

I've been reflecting on that journey and giving serious thought to what it means now and where the sport in North America needs to go in the next two decades. I never expected in 1995-1996 that in 2015, I would be here and I have no plans to be doing this in two more decades. Retirement beckons in the not too distant future but I have some thoughts about the coming years.

The first week of the 2015 Finals series kicks off in Perth with the West Coast Eagles hosting Hawthorn. Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. 

The broadcast schedule for this Finals Week 1 can be seen below.  Please note scheduling for the newly announced TVNZ coverage are included.

 

AFL Europe will be represented at the AFL's National Draft Combine in Melbourne in October by Darragh Joyce (left) and Colin O'Riordan. After testing well at the AFL's Combine in Ireland late last year ran by Tadhg Kennelly these two selected GAA athletes will travel to Australia in hopes of being drafted as International Rookies by one of the AFL clubs.

Given that media speculation is that the Draft talent pool is relatively week and clubs are becoming more open all the time to code crossers, there has probably never a better time to be an Irish kid auditioning for a spot on an AFL list.