World Footy News

The Flying Boomerangs were just too good for the NZ Hawks u16’s. This is no surprise as these indigenous Australians realistically will have been playing footy from not long after they could walk. Meanwhile many of the Kiwis will have been identified through talent spotting competitions like the Hawks Cup, with most players unlikely to have played more than twenty games ever. Over time, as the juniors come through in NZ the gap between the two sides is likely to become less, but right now the tour is best seen as a great experience for all involved!

The AFL Flying Boomerangs were formally welcomed to New Zealand with a powhiri (a welcome to country), held at Te Marae within the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, which served as a fitting introduction to the indigenous Maori culture of New Zealand.

Playing with an exciting blend of skill and speed, the AFL Flying Boomerangs were simply too fast for the Hawks to keep pace. However, the Hawks earned respect through their dogged commitment throughout both games.

In a repeat of last year’s Grand Final the Magpies turned the tables on 2012 Premiers Mt Roskill Saints. In a tense match, where the lead fluctuated throughout, it was the Magpies who managed to hold their nerve and maintained a late lead, eventually running out to a 76-65 win at the Onepoto Domain.

Mt Roskill lead for much of the start of the match, going into the 1st quarter break with a 3.4:22 – 3.0:18 advantage. Waitakere hit back hard, controlling territory for much of the 2nd quarter to go into the half time break 4.6:30 – 6.4:40 up.

The Saints were by no means out of the contest though, putting together an almost perfect third quarter to retake the lead, and the momentum in the match. With the final quarter looming, they moved out to a 7.10:52 -7.4:46 lead.

 

Irishman Zach Tuohy has become an important defender for the Carlton Football Club usually taking on the small forwards such as Luke Breust, Dustin Martin and Lindsay Thomas. His long kicking is very useful from defence but also comes in handy when he can pick off the ball when zoning off around the team's attacking 50m arc and kick some very handy goals.

The video below shows off some highlights of his 2013 season.

In a recent announcement, St Kilda's New Zealand international scholarship holder Joe Baker-Thomas will relocate to Melbourne from his home town of Porirua City in Wellington in early 2014.

Since being signed with the Saints in April this year, the 17-year-old has been based in Wellington undertaking an AFL development program implemented by St Kilda, and supported by AFL New Zealand.
 
 “Joe has come a long way in a short space of time considering he wasn't even aware of the AFL 12 months ago.  He has progressed significantly with his football skills and we hope to build on this development through his training in the Saints Player Academy program in 2014,” said St Kilda Head of Football, Chris Pelchen.
  
 

Since the end of the 2013 season in Cairns, much has been going on behind the scenes to ensure the further growth of the game in far northern Queensland. The Green light has now been given to new teams for 2014 which will strengthen both the junior and senior ranks playing within the AFL Cairns competition.

At the beginning of 2013, AFL Cape York proudly opened the doors to its first intake of boarding students. These young men came to the new establishment – AFL Cape York House – to live and receive their education through nearby secondary schools. They came from as far afield as the Torres Strait Islands, Cape York Peninsula communities and many other places. Opened in May of this year, most of the boys played Australian Rules football with local clubs North Cairns Tigers and Pyramid Power.

 

Thanks to Kashif Bouns for the following.

The Pakistan Shaheens rapid rise in the Australian football world took another step yesterday at Arden Street (North Melbourne's training base), with the team playing its first full field practice match, up against Team Africa. While the end result fell to the Africans, the Shaheens put on a showing that proved there is plenty to come.

After a minute’s silence to recognise the life of former South African president Nelson Mandala, the Shaheens started well dominating the opening few minutes and peppering the goals for a number of behinds, which wasn’t that surprising given they had only stood on a footy field once before as a team. Team Africa then got a bit of a run-on with some unanswered goals but pressure from the Shaheens defence saw them spraying their attack and missing more goals than they kicked.

The second half saw the first goal for the Shaheens to Atta Khan with a set play out of defence leading to a Team Africa error and a set shot from inside the square. New player Muazz scored the Shaheens second goal a few minutes later.
 

As the Australian Rules footy season comes to its winter recess across the countries of the Middle East, it is a time to reflect on what is fast becoming a five team race to the finish line. Earlier this year World Footy News updated the progress after the first couple of games, but much has happened since then to give all teams hope for the season which recommences on 17th January.

After Round Two, the Dubai Dragons had won both of their clashes and were odds on to run off with the competition, leaving the other clubs to squabble over the crumbs. Things have changed quite substantially since then.

With the completion of Round 11, the NTFL now goes into its Festive Season break, providing a chance to look at the first 11 rounds and also what comes in the remaining 7 rounds when hostilities resume on 4th January.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to see much but another St Mary’s flag at this stage. Undefeated, and boasting an impressive runs of big wins, little stands in their way. Their biggest tests will come when they play second placed Wanderers twice in the remaining seven rounds, but other than upsets top spot is virtually locked in.

Wanderers have been the surprise packets this year, and have an almost identical form line to St Mary’s. Their only loss was by three goals to St Mary’s earlier in the season. It would take the wheels to fall off dramatically for them to fall out of favouritism for a grand final berth…but footy is a funny game.
 

Thirteen of the VWFL’s top players have been selected to take part in the 2014 AFL Victoria VWFL Academy/ TAC Club Talented Player Pathway Program – a special pre-season training programme, focussing on skills and game sense, held at their local TAC Cup region.

The VWFL stated on their website they were delighted to have the Northern Knights, Calder Cannons and Eastern Ranges on board for training program but added all TAC Regions were supportive of the idea.

After the running of the AFL Oceania Cup in Suva, Fiji, last week the AFL Oceania Squad has been announced. The squad will compete in next years South Pacific Cup against New Zealand and PNG.

In 2014 the South Pacific Cup will be held on the NSW mid North coast at Coffs Harbour.

As reported the result of theAFL Oceania Cup 2013 - Nauru claim the title the Nauru squad have run out victors and are well represented. Prior to last year, the tournament had included New Zealand and PNG at this point however the splitting of the tournament into the Oceania and subsequent South Pacific Cup tournament provides a solid representative pathway for even the smaller Pacific nations.

Fiji again is hosting the AFL Oceania Cup for the third successive year. AFL Tonga and AFL Nauru arrived last weekend however at late notice AFL Vanuatu were unable to make the trip.

Day 1 kicked off with a lightning premiership format with 4 squads participating : Nauru, Tonga, Fiji and Fiji/Vanuatu.

The tournament then reverted to the competition days leading up to the Grand Final in Suva on Friday. Nauru ran out deserving winners over hosts Fiji whilst in a tight tussle the Fiji/Vanuatu squad edged out an inaccurate Tonga by 2 points in the 3rd place play of.

Ben Drew, the AFL Development Officer for the Pacific highlighted the following for thanks : AFL Fiji, Coca Cola, Suva Grammer, Fiji Sports Commission, FNU (Fiji National University) for all the assistance over the week, as well as both AFL Tonga and AFL Nauru for the terrific football they have played.
From the tournament was selected the 2014 Oceania Squad - article to follow. These boys will be competing at the South Pacific Cup in Coffs Harbour April 2014.

Grand Final results below

St Kilda flies home from Colorado today after an extensive two-week high altitude training camp in Boulder.

The Saints trained at University of Colorado’s elite training facilities, while also embarking on several demanding hikes throughout the scenic yet challenging Colorado mountains.

St Kilda high performance manager Adam Basil set the squad a number of difficult challenges that they relished and completed despite being subjected to weather as cold as -20 degrees celcius.