World Footy News

St Kilda has followed up its successful 2013 Virgin Film Festival entry with an in-depth look at Jason Holmes’ unique path to AFL football.

The Saints’ entry into the 2014 Virgin Film Festival focusses on Holmes’ remarkable journey from Morehead State University to Linen House Centre, and details his rapid progression from a college basketballer to a ruckman on the cusp of an AFL debut just 18 months later.

Ambitious yet modest, the 24-year-old Holmes is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to play AFL football.

The Indonesia Garudas have made their debut at this year’s International Cup, and as a result Yossy Alberta Taehutta etches his name in history as the inaugural Indonesian captain. He took a few moments to answer our questions.

“I discovered Australian Rules football from the AFL development program via the Jakarta Bintangs Australia Football Club. This is my first International Cup as it's the first time Indonesia has played in the event.”

“I started playing Australian Rules footy in 2009. I have played for the Jakarta Bintangs and the Cilengsi tigers. I have travelled to Pattaya, Bangkok, to play in the AFL Asian championships and to Cambodia to play against the Cambodia Eagles.”

Second game of the day at the picturesque Montrose Recreation Reserve, in the foothills of the Dandenongs, was the international between the USA Revolution and the NZ Hawks. This game was sandwiched between the Reserves and Seniors for the Eastern Football League's (EFL) Montrose and Blackburn Football Clubs. With the oval ringed both by trees and cars it was a great venue for the two nations.

Quietly having a chat with members of the crowd I discovered that a lot of promotion had gone into the game with members of both clubs, and indeed with the wider EFL community. The program had both the cover and centre spread all about this game. This is in a League encompassing many thousands of footballers! A local from Montrose said that they were supporting the USA as they were their 'home' club whilst the Hawks were supported by Blackburn. Quietly nursing his can of VB he whispered "I know I'm supposed to be supporting the US but I just can't do it, the Kiwis are our mates and as an ex- digger it just isn't right!". Treasonous thoughts right there but certainly understandable!

As Australian Rules football grows across the world it is inevitable that the game will benefit from players from other sports, coming over to try our game and bringing a whole new skill set to complement our game. An example of this is USA Liberty player, Alison Vorsatz.

“One of my friends and teammates in New York City and on the USA Team, Andrea Casillas, played in the first women's game at our National Tournament back in 2005. She fell in love with the game and started a team in Arizona with Christina Licata. Then they moved to New York and founded the New York Lady Pies in 2008.”

“ I have been an athlete my whole life and still play competitive sports a few nights a week, but I was looking for the opportunity to be a part of a serious team again, one that traveled and resembled the types of teams I played in when I played competitive basketball, volleyball and softball. When I moved to New York in 2012, Drea and Christina handed me a training schedule and said, "You're playing. You'll love it, trust us."

Round 3 produced several upsets and rating points were exchanged in all nine games with 16 rises and falls in the rankings. A very dynamic round could best describe it. There were even rises and falls amongst the provisional nations.

Read on for WFN World Rankings 16th August 2014 after Round 3 IC14.

By Tristan Waldock.

Ariel Steinberg made his AFL debut this weekend for Essendon. He played in Canada at the age of 16 for a season with the Edmonton Australian Rules Football club. He was a big part of the club playing for the men's team and helped coach and umpire women's games helping build the foundation of Canada’s International Cup challenge.

His parents were on a 1 year teacher exchange program to Edmonton in Canada.

Ariel had 7 kicks, 4 handballs and 2 marks for Essendon vs West Coast Eagles.

Ed. We ran a piece on Ariel prior to his drafting in 2010 - see the article here.

The AFL has once again done a wonderful job coordinating around 1000 players and officials from all over the world at the International Cup.  With the upset win of South Africa over Papua New Guinea we also have 4 genuine contenders for the overall championship in the Men's, and in the Women's it looks like the Canadians may have bridged the gap to Ireland, so the race is open there.

However... there's a ticking timebomb that has already caused some damage to the image of the Cup and the AFL and could get worse.

The fixture has major issues.  There's no doubt it's a difficult task trying to meet all the needs of the tournament - flexibility in the number of teams that will turn up, trying to ensure everyone gets a mix of games against the best and the lowest ranked, making sure the top teams have a fair chance to win it, and certainty for the Community Round so that the hosts could prepare for known countries in advance.

But in any sporting competition the key requirement must be that it is as fair as possible.  A primary tool in achieving that is having reasonable seedings (the previous Cup positions making that straight forward) and ensuring a draw that, if matches go according to the seedings, results in the top teams facing off in the semi-finals and grand final.  It also needs to avoid, if possible, teams playing each other more than once, unless they work their way back to a grand final playoff.  This is especially so when players are spending small fortunes to travel around the world wanting to play against countries they've never encountered before or rarely.

The inaugural Dosti Cup was contested on Saturday at Highgate Reserve in Cragieburn, an outer northern suburb of Melbourne. Dosti is the Hindi and Urdu word for Friendship, the spirit in which India and Pakistan would play this game of football.

The home of the Manningham (formerly Bulleen) Cobras at Koonung Reserve in Bulleen was the scene for a Pool of Death (Pool A) match between the Great Britain Bulldogs and the ever improving Fiji Tribe. With the local team in the VAFA, their reserves kicked off the early morning dew and by the time the IC match was ready to go the ground was bathed in weak morning sun glowing through the low clearing cloud and in fine firm condition to allow the players to showcase their wares to the local crowd.

Great Britain sitting 1 and 1 after a first up win against the French followed by a tough and bruising loss against an impressive Nauru. Fiji first up showed a bit going down to the Irish and then had a percentage booster against the hapless Garudas. In the battle to sneak into the Division one 4th place this would be a tough ask – as neither side would give an inch.

With cool and calm conditions prevailing and an overcast sky – the USA Liberty (the ‘B’ team) had a tough task in taking on the inaugural IC women’s champions in Ireland (the Banshees). Perhaps to the chagrin of the ‘A’ team (the Freedom) who would love to take on the Irish – the goal for the Liberty would be more about limiting the damage and seeing if with an ounce of luck and a ton of pluck that they might just sneak a goal. They had the first round bye and on Wednesday had been given a trouncing by the Northern Lights. The Banshees on the other hand undefeated thus far with a tough opener against the debutant Fiji Vonu and a round 2 victory over the other debutant nation Tonga.

Canada put on a slick display of football at Mordialloc on Saturday, winning 20.10 (130) to Sweden no score.

Whilst both sides impressed the enthusiastic local crowd with fast, tough, physical footy, it was the Canadians who entertained with their precision hand and foot skills.

The match potentially could have awarded the Canadians fourth spot after the pool matches and a shot at lifting the International Cup, and the Northwind players knew they wanted to hit the ground running.