World Footy News

Contributed by Rod Shaw.

The Kiwis very nearly defeated the AIS AFL Academy in Wellington last Saturday.Though it is a game of mainly men (NZ Hawks) against boys (AIS) this aspect has not changed and therefore the performance of the Hawks shows evidence of significant progress on-field for the Kiwis.
 
With so many of the AIS players going on to be listed by AFL Clubs this annual game provides a clearly defined benchmark for quality development. The AIS AFL Academy is well known for producing top quality footballers. From the 30-man team that toured New Zealand in 2011, 29 now have contracts with AFL clubs.
 
 

The second of three matches for the School Sports Australia Under 15 team in South Africa was played on Tuesday at the Mohadin Cricket Ground in Potchefstroom. After the first game, won by the visiting School Sports Australia team by 30 points, the South Africa Lions would have taken heart from that scoreline. However, the visitors triumphed today by a far more comfortable 70 points.  

SCHOOL SPORT AUSTRALIA TOUR - MATCH 2 RESULTS
21 JANUARY 2014- POTCHEFSTROOM

School Sport Australia 16.9.105 d  South Africa Lions 5.5.35

The AFL's Kevin Sheehan spoke to Radio Sport in New Zealand ahead of yesterday's talent combine in Wellington, the audio can be heard below.

In great news for footy viewers in NZ the Australian Football League today to announced Sommet Sports and SKY Sport have renewed their international rights for the next three years.

New Zealand sports fans will be able to watch every AFL game in the 2014 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on either the Sommet Sports or SKY Sport channels.

Each week Sommet Sports will broadcast a minimum of five matches live and the remaining matches on delay. The rights include live broadcast of the Toyota AFL Finals Series matches (including the Grand Final) and a weekly highlights program that will air over 28 weeks (on holdback).

In an extraordinary display of international friendship, Cairns based junior club, Pyramid Power, have just gained their 100th international Brother Club.

 This week, the Port Adelaide Football Club, one of the 18 national teams in the AFL, agreed to become the 100th club to join the Pyramid Power Brother Club Project. This extraordinary gesture sees the tiny idea from a tiny club in North Queensland reach an unprecedented level of acknowledgement and acceptance from one of the biggest clubs in the world of Australian Rules football.

The Brother Clubs Project was commenced in 2012 when Pyramid Power sought to expand its supporter base through the use of social media and make genuine friends with Australian Football clubs all over the world. What started as a small group of clubs who commenced sending messages of support has now grown to include teams from almost 40 countries across the world. Many of these clubs jointly assist each other when needed as well as simply keeping in touch.

The New Zealand Hawks and the AIS AFL Academy will renew their annual competition at The Westpac Stadium in Wellington, on the 25th of January 2014. Entry into the stadium will be free.
 

The New Zealand Hawks last played the AIS AFL Academy in January 2013, in a match that finished with the Australians emerging with a hard fought win. This year the fixture promises to be equally as competitive. Though NZ do not have the Hawthorn Rookies Kurt Heatherley and Shem Tatupu, Melbourne’s International Scholarship holder Maia Westrupp nor AFL legend Wayne Schwass who made his debut for his country last year there is no doubt the team will be tough competition for the talented juniors at the AIS.
 

The squad will blend youth and experience, and feature New Zealanders based both around the country and in Australia. Contingents of players are currently training in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Melbourne, and the Northern Territory of Australia.
 

The Caledonian Australian Football League in Scotland is showing no signs of slowing down on its growth and now they have launched their social media outlets its only going to get better.

With their website http://www.cafl.org.uk/ they hope to reach a bigger audience and grow even more.

CAFL has one of the highest percentages in Europe of locals playing the sport of Australian Rules Football and this has been increasing year on year with figures showing that 83% of CAFL 2013 participants were Scottish. So what does such a high figure mean to the sport here in Scotland and the CAFL itself?

The first match of the current tour of South Africa by the School Sports Australia team was played today. The School Sports Australia team is an Under 15 representative school team, selected from the best players in the School Sport Australia carnival held in Darwin in August 2013.

The AFL Community – Schools website stated that the School Sport Australia National Australian Football Secretary, Mr Luke Soulos, has confirmed through correspondence to AFL South Africa, that the squad would consist of 25 players, 1 Umpire and 6 Team Officials.

It is with a heavy heart on the sad news of the death of South African Simphiwe “Stone” Mbhalo that we offer our condolences to the family, friends and the AFL South Africa community.  Details are scant but we believe he was shot and died aged just 24.

In the international footy community he is best known for kicking the after the siren goal in the International Cup match against Ireland in 2008.  For those unfamiliar with the moment the report of the match can be found here (and see the footage below).  He kicked two goals in that match and was named in the best players four times in the IC08 tournament.

The following press release from the NTFL focuses on the upcoming driver safety message, something that affects everyone, way beyond the boundaries of footy in the Northern Territory. This weekend’s round is dedicated to this message.

Round 14 of the TIO NTFL season has been renamed “Road Safety Round” in a bid to raise awareness among high risk drivers of the need to heed road safety advice.

Sponsored by TIO and supported by NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services, St John Ambulance, Careflight and NT Road Safety, the NTFL Road Safety Day will bring together players, supporters and spectators to consider the issues of road safety.

Embedded below is the full 1996 documentary "100 Years of Australian Football", which of course refers to the VFL/AFL history rather than the age of the game.

With the arrival of the 2014 football season, the reality of the next International Cup is just around the corner. World Footy News will be looking at the prospects of teams planning to come out to Australia for the event over the coming months. This story, looking at Finnish football, has been reproduced with the kind permission of Justin Lassey at Bigfooty Media. It is the written article drawn from the recent video clip http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20131113101224554 posted late last year.

In this instalment of the International Footy series we talk to Janne Hokkonen, the President of the Finland AFL.

Janne first got involved in Australian football when he was looking for a hobby in 2009. He says it was an accident, when a family friend introduced him to the game. He started playing kick to kick in the park with a small group of guys, and within the month was playing in his first game. He says that he’s spent most of the time in the backline, but has played all over except ruck due to his short stature.