World Footy News

Looks like North Melbourne's American recruit Eric "The Beast" Wallace is making progress in his first season of Aussie Rules, if this footage from the VFL is anything to judge by:

Wallace on instagram

For everyone keenly awaiting the final list of teams and match schedule for the 2014 AFL International Cup, we're pleased to report that the Men's competition draw is due to be released this Monday, 30th June.  The Women's draw is due out later in the week.

Our latest information suggests there could be 18 men's teams (but not confirmed):

Canada, China, Fiji, Finland, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Ireland (defending champions), Japan, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, PNG, South Africa, Sweden, Tonga, USA

And 5 countries represented in the Women's draw, but possibly with some countries fielding two sides:

Ireland (defending champions), Canada, USA, Tonga, Fiji

After months of speculation, the DAFL have officially confirmed that the Denmark Vikings national team will not be travelling to Australia for the 2014 International Cup. National team coach Páll Tómas Finnsson says that financial concerns meant that any side the Vikings could have sent would have been far from the best side possible.

"The decision was made in March as it became clear to us that we wouldn't be able to raise the necessary funds to cover our travel and accommodation costs. The estimated cost is 5,000 AUD per person, or a total of 160,000 AUD for a full team list of 28 players and four officials."

"Our players' football expenses have risen exponentially in the last few years. We participate in European tournaments such as the European Championships and the Euro Cup, and, in addition, many of our young talents have had the opportunity to represent their country in the European Legion's games against the AIS talent development squad and on the World XVIII Team."

"The absence of major sponsors means that these players, many of which are under 20 years old and still studying, have reached the maximum of what they can spend on the sport. We therefore had the choice of travelling to Australia with a limited squad or cancelling our participation. After careful consideration and with much regret, we decided on the latter."

The Vikings are one of Europe's oldest national sides, having competed regular against traditional rivals Great Britain and Sweden since the 1990s. They competed at the inaugural International Cup in 2002, where they finished 4th - their best result from any IC. They then withdraw from the 2005 edition, but returned in 2008 and 2011.

Footy returned to its birthplace in India on the 15th of June as Kolkata hosted the first ever ‘ARFAI Bengal State Championship’ in Salt Lake, West Bengal. Six teams with players hailing from Bongaon, Kharda, Hooghly, Howrah and Kolkata fought it out on the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan school ground on a Sunday which witnessed scorching heat, thunderstorm, torrential rain and some cracking Footy action.

The ground in fact hosted the first ever exhibition match of Footy in India back in 2008 with the efforts of present Secretary General of the Australian Rules Football Association of India, Sudip Chakraborty.

The teams were divided into 2 groups of 3 each and played out a round robin format to decide which 2 teams would go on to contest the final. The first group featured the Tigers, Giants and Bombers while the second group matched up the Eagles, Saints and Wolverines against each other. The Eagles team was lucky to play in official West Coast Eagles merchandize provided by the club themselves and facilitated by ARFAI ambassador Helen Mell from Perth.

The tournament also saw the first appearance of a non-Australian brother club in the form of Wolverines who take their name from Wolverhampton Wolverines club in AFL England. After fiercely fought matches in the group stages, the Bombers and the Saints advanced to get a shot at the coveted trophy.

The following press release provided by SIAFL.

Solomon Islands AFL hosted the 2014 Grand Final on Thursday between the White River Demons and the Central Coast Eagles. The stage was set for an exciting game of football between these two powerhouse clubs. Both teams have dominated the 2014 home and away season and were close games in their previous encounters.

The New Zealand women’s team is not yet ready for competition at the International Cup in 2014.

AFL New Zealands’s Mick Coulthard said “The main contributing factor is the age of the girls that we have currently in our system, aged between 14 and 18 years of age that come through our secondary school programmes”.

The AFL today announced the 2014 World Team squad which will compete at the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships on the Gold Coast in July.  AFL Hall of Famer Anthony Koutoufides has been named head coach of the World Team again in 2014.

The AFL this week announced the 2014 Flying Boomerangs squad which will compete at the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships in July on the Gold Coast.

Coached by Eugene Warrior, former Port Adelaide and Norwood (SANFL) player, The Flying Boomerangs squad will participate in Division Three and will take on the World Team, WA North-West and the South Pacific.

The Flying Boomerangs is a personal development and leadership program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young men aged 14 -15 years-old, supported by the Coles AFL Indigenous Program.

The 2014 SIAFL (Solomon Islands AFL) Grand Final takes place tomorrow afternoon in Honiara. With a season interrupted by a deadly and damaging storm early this year – the season culminates with the White River Demons taking on the Central Coast Eagles.

The match is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) – June 26th – at the King George VI field in Honiara. As per the poster below – SIAFL staff will be in attendance from 3pm onwards with the opening bounce at 4pm.

Gab Donnelly has spent a fair bit of time recently lurking around her local post office with large parcels. In her role as treasurer with the Baulkham Hills Hawks juniors in the north west suburbs of Sydney, Gab has been answering the call of their Cairns based “brothers” and sending footy boots and jumpers to all parts of the world to help kids and youth to keep playing our game.

The most recent example is the sending of some club jumpers to the Bodibe club, a city 250 kilometres west of Johannesburg in South Africa. This follows on from their extraordinary gesture of donating a set of 20 jumpers to the Salamanda Port Powers team in Lae, Papua New Guinea, and another donation of a jumper to the North Delta junior club in Vancouver, Canada. They also sent a small set of jumpers to the Pyramid Power club in Cairns to help promote the Brother Clubs Project.

At this rate the club may run out of jumpers before long. But not heart.

A family holiday in June in Vanuatu - a great escape from winter in Melbourne. Staying at the Iririki Island Resort - we had plans for some simple and lazy resort time. However - we also had a Saturday morning date at Kazza Field and two big bags packed with 40+ pairs of footy boots and a couple of shiny new Sherrin match balls.

First though - our recovery day one in Port Vila from a 2am arrival and getting to bed after 4am

It's not uncommon for Australians - especially those south of the Murrumbidgee - to take a winter holiday to sunnier tropical locations and so it was the plan for my family to head to sunny Vanuatu across the first week or so of June. Of course one of my sons would pack a footy. Nothing too strange there. Perhaps what was more strange was a couple of bags containing 40+ pairs of donated footy boots and a couple of plastic wrapped brand new sherrin match footys.

(AFL) Vanuatu here we come! The following is in part tropical paradise travel diary and in part a WFN inspired footy pilgrimage.