World Footy News

Not all nations can afford to make it to Australia for the International Cups, and it should not be seen as a measure of strength or support of the game if a nation doesn’t get there. There are more factors than just the love of the game, or relative strength of the game, which impact decisions – fiscal considerations arguably the highest of these.

A case in point is the Solomon Islands. According to the SIAFL (Solomon Islands Australian Football League), the desire is certainly there, but not the main mechanism to make it happen – funding.

“Yes, unfortunately we will not be attending the IC14 competition. The biggest barrier came down to a lack of funding and sponsorship. Unfortunately we were not able to secure any corporate backing.”

A Norwegian team comprising players from the Oslo Crows has crossed the border into neighbouring Sweden and stolen the silverware – the 2014 Sweden Cup.

The annual event was held over the weekend, and the following details from the AFL Sweden website give an indication of what the event entails.

AFL Sweden comes together on neutral ground in Jönköping for a civil war between all the clubs in the country to determine who is the strongest, who is the best, who is the champion of Sweden.

The Swedish Cup is the only time in the year where all of the Aussie Rules players and teams from around the country come together to face off against one another in a festival of footy.

Aussie Rules the World is a new movie to be released in Australia on July 21st. It covers the issues of Aussie rules looking outside to the world for a place beyond its home shores. International footy followers will see plenty of familiar places and faces as Brett Kirk travels the world leading up to the 2011 International Cup and then reveals the passion for the game back on Australian turf as the world brings the game back to the native land.

Please check out the trailer below.

 

The Toulouse Hawks have made it back to back French titles in their home city overnight, defeating the Paris Cockerels in a stirring match. The final score of 104 to 62 suggested a big win, but the Cockerels never stopped taking the game up to the Hawks.

Words on the Perpignan Tigers Facebook page summed up the feelings well: “The new shield will return to the Toulouse Hawks who prevailed 104-62 against the Parisians. Kudos [go] to the Hawks for their domination in this [season’s] championship (unbeaten) and to the Parisians who fought to the end.”

For the Toulouse team the day marks their first ever championship match victory, though the records show back to back titles. Last season’s victory was achieved without the ultimate match of the year being played, the title awarded after the match could not go ahead for reasons discussed in a previous WFN article Hawks v Cockerels battle for French premiership glory.

That was the maiden championship for Toulouse, but yesterday’s victory is the first time the team has enjoyed the experience of playing an opponent on field to win the battle based on talent, courage, strength and commitment – one of the best feelings in football.

An entry on the AFL Europe website showed the allocation of a start-up grant for a Budapest based Australian Rules football team in 2013. Whilst many readers possibly salivated at the thought of breaking into the Hungarian market, others may well have thought it was a misprint. But Geordie Est has returned to Australia from Hungary with the story of Aussie Rules progress in Budapest.

“I carried out several clinics during my time in Budapest. They were predominantly for foreigners either living in the city or passing through. I started the clinics in late autumn when the weather was getting a bit chilly so I didn't get a huge amount of traction. Nonetheless, I would like to thank Ben MacCormack for sending the balls over. It did give me the opportunity to showcase the game in some small way. I also collaborated with a Frisbee group and introduced the ball and the game to those that were interested. I held the clinics at Margaret Island which is very central and provided an ideal location.”

I was going to simply comment in response to the article Wellington AFL Game Doubt? but decided this issue is so significant it deserves as much focus as possible.

So I repeat the title. Wellington simply must succeed.

If the AFL can successfully host matches in Wellington each year then that will complement the significant work being done in junior development across New Zealand and gradually, if done well, in a generation build support for the country to have its own AFL club. At that point the eyes of Australians will be truly opened to an international future for the sport.

Why is there a problem already in just the second year of this experiment? I think this is almost a case of being too greedy too quickly. The Wellington deal is a golden goose for St Kilda and the AFL but there's a real danger of immediately killing it in a breathtakingly short space of time.

The generous offer put on the table by Wellington council was amazing and gives the AFL an historic opportunity to secure a foothold in New Zealand to back up all the grassroots work being done. That grassroots work may never yield the large outcome many of us desire without having the shiny beacon of regular popular AFL matches to aspire to.

But to respect and nurture such an amazing offer requires a reasonable contribution in return.

Apologies this was published after the filming mentioned below, due to worldfootynews.com being in the process of major site maintenance.

Northern Territory football, and the game overall, will soon receive a boost with a new Australian movie to hit our screens in 2015. The following press release from the AFLNT details the call out to footy fans in the Northern Territory to be a part of the extras in the film, as well as being a part of the match being filmed for the movie.

WANT TO BE IN A NEW AUSSIE MOVIE WITH AN AFL LEGEND?

NT AFL fans will have the chance to be in a new Australian film, currently shooting in Darwin – at TIO Stadium on Saturday, June 14.

Last Cab to Darwin is Jeremy Sims’ road movie drama starring Michael Caton, whose character Rex Macrae is a cab driver who, when told he doesn’t have long to live, sets out on an epic journey from Broken Hill to Darwin.

Along the way he picks up a couple of passengers, including the character Tilly Johnson - the ‘best full forward in the history of Oodnadatta’ - played by Mark Coles Smith.

AFL legend Brian Taylor has a guest role as ‘The Coach’ of the Saints – St Mary’s Football Club, Darwin – in the film and will shoot his scenes on June 10 at TIO Stadium with players from the club.

AFL Fiji have named their extended squad that will be representing the country in the men's division at the 2014 International Cup.

It has been a long and trialling time for the players that have been pressing for a position and those named are men that have been showing their worth each week at the AF Fiji Club Championships.

The extended 36 man squad is made up of Fijian, Australian and New Zealand based players.

The women's squad, Fiji Vonu, is also set to be named shortly.

Questions are being raised about the future of AFL matches being hosted by Wellington.

Fewer than half of the 13,285 people who attended Wellington's AFL Anzac Day fixture paid face value for a ticket leaving its on-going future in jeopardy. However it would mirror the case for many promotional markets such as Western Sydney that many tickets in the initial seasons are ‘free and complimentaries’ to generate a following- particularly among the children in the region.

The Wellington city council is understood to have contributed $600,000 of ratepayer money to promote the game, but there was little public interest with the crowd down from 22,183 at the inaugural game in 2013.

"It's under review and hard questions are being asked about the return on investment to Wellington," said Deputy Mayor Justin Lester.

"It has the ability to be a centrepiece of next year's Anzac Day centenary celebrations, but a lot of work needs to be done.

"When it was introduced… it seems to have been a fairly clear case of over-promising and under-delivering. We want to change that. We have met with representatives from St Kilda and the AFL to make our concerns known and to review the situation."

"Whilst the crowd was down compared to last year, we're still very positive about the result given the impact of the school and Easter holiday period [which coincided with Anzac Day]," St Kilda representative Ben Davies said.

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Australian Rules football is well and truly under way in Norway for 2014, with the second round of the Kenguru Cup being played last weekend. Again the competition was made of the two Oslo based teams – Oslo East and Oslo West - as well as the Ås Battlers.

After just two rounds it is the Oslo East team leading the way and issuing the challenge for the other two teams to “come and get them”.

Earlier in mid-May, Round 1 took place with the Oslo East team taking the honours to kick off the new season.

Read on for Round 1 Results: (match played in Ekeberg, Oslo)