World Footy News

India returns to Melbourne for their third successive International Cup. Their first visit Down Under resulted in a series of heavy losses, however at the last tournament the team displayed improvement and secured their first-ever victory, against East Timor.

Once again only half the squad will travel from India, however this time the travelling party are official participants in the Australian Rules Football Association of India, representing three of its clubs; Bengal Tigers, Maharashtra Giants and Jharkand Crows. In addition to this, a number of the Melbourne-based players have had regular match time at Masala Football Club, in the Victorian Amateur Football Association; the club having been born out of India’s last International Cup campaign.

AFL PNG Mosquitos (men's team) returns to contest their fifth AFL International Cup - one of a select group of nations to contest each tournament thus far. A team that whilst raw in 2002; managed to win through to the inaugural grand final only to fall short to Ireland. Since then the Mossies have contested each decider losing in 2005 to New Zealand; breaking the drought for a mighty win in 2008 in a rematch against the then NZ Falcons. And then in 2011 again came up short against the Irish. It's a proud heritage of participation and no doubt there would be an expectation of at least a top 4 finish and a reasonable hope of again competing in the final.

Tomorrow sees the AFL London Grand Final matches take place as footy in London reaches the season crescendo. Thanks to Chris Rea for the previews.

PREMIERSHIP DIVISION WANDSWORTH - DEMONS VS WEST LONDON WILDCATS

Once again the old rivals will meet in an AFL London decider.   If games to date this year are any indication, this one will be a ferocious contest. It has three years since these two proud Clubs last faced off in a Grand Final.  Don’t expect that to reduce the tension however, as over the course of 25 years of Aussie Rules footy in London there is no bigger rivalry.

The Demons rebuilt over the off Season, following a disappointing 2013 (by their standards). With plenty of new recruits joining and new leadership from within, they tackled 2014 with renewed confidence.   Their first (and only) misstep was a 1 point loss to the Wildcats in Round One and since then the Demons have taken all before them.  A narrow win over the Wildcats earlier in the finals series gave them a direct path to the Grand Final, and they’ll be hoping the extra rest gives them an edge.

NZ’s Shem Tatupu, one of Hawthorn’s International Rookies, will miss the remainder of the season with stress fractures in his foot.

General Manager – Football Operations Chris Fagan confirmed the the key forward/ruckman prospect felt soreness in his foot at a training session a few weeks ago.

Tatupu was sent for scans, which revealed stress fractures that will force him onto the sidelines for the rest of the season.

“We had some X-rays and scans on that that turned out to be stress fractures, which have required surgery,” Fagan said.

The USA Freedom was formed in 2007 and has played in international matches against Canada’s Northern Lights, most recently in the 2013 49th Parallel Cup. The team also toured Australia in 2009 and played against women’s teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Country Victoria and Cairns.

In the first ever International Cup Women’s Division at IC11 the USA Freedom finished third defeating the PNG Flames twice and Australian IM team.

This time around the USAFL chose to send a second "development" team to Australia to play against some Australian women's teams.  They are known as the Liberty.  As the International Cup approached and some of the original teams (NZ, Europe and PNG) pulled out a decision was made that the Liberty would also play in the International Cup.

The Country

The United States of America is comprised of 48 states in central North America, Alaska to the north west of Canada, and the islands of Hawaii in the mid Pacific. Though the majority population are European descent and English is the official language, the USA is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations.

YOUNG boys leapt for joy while others leant on their knees in the worn paddock in the middle of the Nairobi township of Embulbul.

The final whistle had blown and the first international game of Australian football between African nations was over. Were there really any losers?

The historic match between players representing Kenya and Tanzania took place in late June in Nairobi, thanks to outreach organisation Zimele and its founder Tom Purcell, a senior teacher at Melbourne's St Kevin's College.

Since Purcell first visited Africa seven years ago, he has dreamt of establishing a sporting exchange between the neighbouring countries, but a lack of financial support and tricky logistics forced him to be extremely patient. However patience comes naturally to a busy, full-time working father of 10, as does persistence, and this year it all paid off.

As part of its commitment to promoting acceptance and diversity, the Essendon Football Club has endorsed its first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) support group – The Purple Bombers.  CEO Xavier Campbell said Essendon Football Club was a place for all footy fans to feel welcome and respected.

“The Purple Bombers is great initiative,” Campbell said.  “No matter what your race, religion, gender or sexuality - everyone deserves the right to head along and enjoy the football in a safe and positive environment.”

“Our club has always championed diversity and inclusion at the football - We launched our #EFCRespect campaign earlier this season and the formation of the Purple Bombers supporter group is the next step in this important initiative.”

To view the club’s #EFCRespect campaign click here.

The Cairns AFL scene has a boundary umpire with a slightly different journey to most others. For the record, Sampho (pronounced Samp-ho with a strong “P” sound) is most likely not the first ever Cambodian born umpire in Australian Rules football ranks. I would imagine there are more in the southern states where there are larger Cambodian communities that have been exposed to the game for longer.

Nevertheless, Sampho Hing has found his way onto the Cairns football fields, and for those few hours as he runs the boundary he stands as a gleaming international beacon for our game. He becomes a subtle invitation for others to follow his lead and slowly, gradually grow the game across the world.

The first question Sampho answered was the journey from Cambodia to Australia.

China returns for their third consecutive International Cup and will be keen to show off their new look squad to an unsuspecting audience. Following on from their fifth placing in Division 2 in 2011 (which was already an improvement on their 15th placing in the 2008 debut), this year’s squad has been working solidly across a range of areas and expect to ruffle more than a few feathers.

The Country and Australian Football

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is the most populous state in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. The PRC exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly administered municipalities (Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and the capital city- Beijing), as well as two special administrative regions (SARs) – Hong Kong and Macau

Indonesia may debuting at the International Cup but the country has a footy history that has been passed along to squad given the honour of representing their massive nation.  This is a massive step for footy in Indonesia and also the future of footy development for Asian nationals.

The Country and Australian Football.

Indonesia is a sovereign state in South East Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising some 17,000 islands with a population of over 238 million people, making it the world's fourth most populous country.

Indonesia lies between latitudes 11°S and 6°N, and longitudes 95°E and 141°E. It consists of 17,508 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. These are scattered over both sides of the equator. The largest are Java, Sumatra, Borneo (shared with Brunei and Malaysia), New Guinea (shared with Papua New Guinea), and Sulawesi. Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on Borneo, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and East Timor on the island of Timor. Indonesia shares maritime borders across narrow straits with Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Palau to the north, and with Australia to the south. The capital, Jakarta, is on Java and is the nation's largest city.

The Manchester Mosquitoes strengthened any claims that they are the powerhouse of the AFLCNE competition when they dispatched a worthy foe in the Huddersfield Rams in the 2014 Grand Final.

Clubs often don’t want to blow their own trumpets too loudly for fear of setting themselves up as the hunted, but the statistics for Manchester are impressive. The last five years has now netted four grand final appearances for three premierships: a consistency that would be the envy of all other opponents.

After finishing the home and away season on top of the ladder, undefeated but sharing a controversial tie with the Wolverhampton Wolverines in Round Three, the Mozzies ran out comfortable winners in their semi-final against the Birmingham Bears. The Huddersfield Rams finishedthird after the home and away season and had to get past the highly improved Nottingham Scorpions to reach the grand-final, which they did.