World Footy News

The 2014 International Cup will have two Tongan teams – The Tonga Thunder men’s team and the Tongan Storm ladies team. The Thunder Guernsey is shown above and the Storm will have a matching uniform with the colours being blue and white. This will be the men’s second visit to the International Cup and the ladies debut.

The Country and Australian football

Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, south of Samoa. Also known as the Friendly Islands, it comprises 176 islands, 36 of them are inhabited. Tonga is the only monarchy in the Pacific since Taufa'ahau (King George) in 1875 declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, he also gave Tonga its first constitution. In 1970 the former British protectorate acquired its independence.

With a total population of around 110,000, almost two-thirds of Tonga's population live on the main island Tongatapu, on which the capital city Nuku'alofa (pop. 25,000) is located.

An opportunity exists to assist the development of Australian Rules football in Japan with the newly formed Hiroshima Football Club seeking individual donations and corporate sponsors to raise the necessary start-up funds to get the club on the field.

Below is the link for those interested in assisting the Hiroshima club find the initial $1000 to be on the field, as well a a brief description of their aims. This opportunity may also be of value to clubs looking at developing links with Japanese clubs.

Hiroshima FC fundrazr campaign.

The South Pacific Under 16s squad finished up their week on the Gold Coast with a tough game against the Australian indigenous Flying Boomerangs at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

The benefits of the week of competition showing in their game play that was regarded as their best displayed across the carnival with improved spread and ball movement. A little more finishing ability and the scoreboard may have reflected a tighter result. With 3 games played across the week – the footy learning also is the result of up to 10 months preparation through the AFL South Pacific talent pathways.

The following is a summary of the week - comments based on AFL South Pacific.

Peter Cresswell is a Kiwi who found footy in Auckland and is glad he did, his story below originally appeared on The Footy Almanac website earlier this week.

I didn’t see my first game of footy until just before my twenty-first. No wonder. There wasn’t a lot of it about in Greater Auckland.

With cartilage falling off the inside of my knees in great chunks, the quack had said “No more contact sport for you, son,” which seemed to rule out any more rugby, league or soccer. And a mate had said, “I’m playing Rules on Sunday. D’you wanna come out and take a look.” The idea of something involving ‘rules’ didn’t sound too appealing to a bloke whose idea of a good night out was pogoing to loud punk bands. But that was how the game was known in Greater Auckland.

So I went, and I laughed.

The following article appeared on the AustraliaPlus.com website earlier this week.

Australian football is played widely overseas with international participation estimated at more than 100,000 participants. There are clubs and links with the game all over the world. In Hong Kong, the local team the Hong Kong Dragons was established 24 years ago. It currently has a membership base of 50-60 players participating in the South China Australian Football League and the AFL junior AusKick program. AusKick, the AFL's development program is popular with both boy and girls both in Australia and abroad.

The half-time AusKicker game, where AusKick associations are invited to play on AFL grounds during senior matches is a traditional part of the spectacle and an unforgettable experience for all involved.

 

The 2014 AFL International Cup women’s fixture has been released. Teams will play four round matches and have one bye. After the completion of the round matches teams will be ranked from 1 through to 7 based on their win/loss record and percentage.

The Grand Final will be played between the 2 highest ranked teams at Punt Rd Oval in Richmond on the 23rd of August.

Remaining teams will play off for minor placing’s - 3 v 4 and 5 v 6 with team 7 eliminated.

The USA and Canada will each enter two teams which are completely separate teams. Players representing Canada and USA can only be listed for one team and may not transfer between teams at any stage during IC14. As well as those four teams the Cup will be contested by Ireland, Tonga and Fiji after NZ, PNG and European teams were unable to field sides.

When given 10 minutes to interview the great AFL legend, Kevin Sheedy, as an Essendon supporter the temptation is great to blow it all on talking about the premiership years, the North Melbourne “Marshmallow Incident”, the West Coast “Jacket Waving” or a thousand other personal interests.

In Cairns for this weekend's Gold Coast Suns v Western Bulldogs clash, talk could have drifted to that topic, or the injury to Gary Ablett, or just about anything to do with football in North Queensland, But true to the occasion I was restrained enough to keep the conversation in the domain of international football and was rewarded with a brief but fascinating point of view from one of the most creative and successful people in the history of the AFL.

The initial question was very broad. When asked about his opinion of international footy he responded “It’s great. We have the best game in the world and we have do develop it and encourage it. We have to give it lots of encouragement for it to succeed overseas. It is important for the future of the game that we develop it in markets everywhere.”

The Sweden Elks are gearing up for their third International Cup this year, and although a number of withdrawals from the original list will see them travel with a relatively young squad, a number of familiar faces will be making the trip.

Sweden are hoping to push up the rankings a bit, having finished 12th and 11th in their previous two IC appearances.

National coach Daniel McClaer spoke with WFN about the team's preparations and goals.

The AFL Fiji Club Championships came to an end on a Warm sunny and cloudless day at Albert Park in Suva, Fiji with the Raiwaqa Giants taking out the AFL Fiji Club Championships 2014.

In a lopsided event, the Giants ran away with the game before half-time with a 19.14.128 to 8.11.59 thrashing of heavy favourites Nausori Cats.
In a thrilling and spectacular display of power footy at its tropical best, Bulldog Player of the Match was Juta Vateitei. Cats Player of the Match was Nathan Wesley and a special mention also goes to Finn Murphy for the Giants who took a few brilliant marks and kicked truly finishing the day with 7 goals.

With the Club championships now at a close, attention turns to the final preparations for the International Cup in Melbourne.

Fiji will be looking to jump up into Div 1 this year after winning division 2 in 2011.

Back in 2012 a photo surfaced on social media. It showed a young man wading into a creek to retrieve a footy. The caption read along the lines of “if you kick it in, you get it yourself”. It was a reference to the one and only football belonging to that club.

The club turned out to be the Raiwaqa Bulldogs, the youngest junior Australian Rules football team in Fiji. The photo cannot be found now, lost in the vacuum of social media feeds, but the club just won the 2014 AFL Fiji premiership. An incredible effort, given that less than two years ago their single football was their most valued possession.

The Fiji Times (online) ran a story detailing the events of grand final day:

Having settled into Vanuatu as a tropical island paradise - it's Saturday morning footy time. Normally for me this is Auskick in suburban Melbourne. This Saturday it's a tad bit different; Vanuatu; tropical humidity; land crab holes; and I'll be umpiring today.

This is the third instalment of a Vanuatu travel diary/footy pilgrimage. Part of the objective of this series is to highlight footy on our door step in a country that anyone can justify visiting along with their whole family, or club. In A footy holiday to Vanuatu - Part 1 - boots and footys my family and I arrived with a bit of extra baggage and in A footy holiday to Vanuatu - Part 2 - Kazza field and those pesky crab holes we made our way to Kazza field - spotting familiar goal posts in unfamiliar territory.