World Footy News

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.

Jason Lassey of Bigfooty Media interviews Terry Anderson, President of AFL Canterbury.

Stateside Footy presents coverage of the USAFL women's footy with Minnesota vs Boston and then Minnesota vs New York . These games took place at Rogers Field on the site of the former Fort Devens in Harvard, MA in July this year.

Stateside Footy is a cable access TV show produced with the assistance of WCTV - Wilmington Community Television in Wilmington, MA. It features Aussie Rules Football as it is played in the U.S.A.

Stateside Footy's Bill Robert is well known as a big Geelong fan. Possibly lesser known is the mayor of Beverley Hills - John Mirisch. You can read the article on John on the AFL website here.

This year has been a very positive one for Wellington AFL in that a local season of footy was played. In 2012 the competition never eventuated even after trying to commence with three teams with the North City Demons in recess.

After the excitement generated from finishing Runners Up to Canterbury in the National Provincial Championships (NPC) in late 2012, regular participation of Wellington players in NZ senior and under-age teams and the highlight of the Anzac Day game between St Kilda and Sydney at the Wellington Stadium it provided the impetus for the re-establishment of the local competition.
 

The AFL this week announced a new multi-year agreement with Rightster - the digital video distribution, marketing and monetisation specialist - relating to the AFL’s international live streaming subscription service, AFLTV. The service, operated and built by Rightster on the AFL’s behalf, offers live and on-demand coverage of every Toyota AFL Premiership season match to fans all over the world, via AFLTV.

Throughout the 2013 Toyota AFL Premiership season, AFLTV reached thousands of fans in over 216 territories, delivering more than 2.5 million streams, including Hawthorn’s Grand Final win over Fremantle earlier this year. 

Alex Starling was awarded an international scholarship with the Sydney Swans after the first unofficial US Combine in 2011. He was to continue his studies and basketball at a US college and return to the Swans at the end of 2012.  He also played a handful of games with the Florida Redbacks in the USAFL.

Unfortunately though injury meant he was unable to come to Sydney to fulfil his AFL destiny with the Swans. Starling left the radar, and the Sydney Swans did not respond to questions as to whether there was any chance he would get another chance with them after saying they would not list him as an International rookie at the end of 2012.

But he has now popped up in yesterday's Leader community paper having signed with AFL club Frankston.  Coach Simon Goosey has been in contact with Paul Roos who first found Starling at the US combine and set him up with the Swans and told Goosey that Starling was "one of the best athletes he's ever seen" . 

Jason Lassey of Bigfooty Media interviews General Manager of AFL Europe - Ben MacCormack.

Following last year’s success of the inaugural national level tournament of Australian Rules Football in Kerala, India and the wonderful reception it enjoyed from people, it was time for hosting the 2nd annual national championship - AFL India - OGM Cup 2013. The venue for the tournament this year was the richest state of India, in terms of per capita GDP, Goa which is located on the western coast of India.

There was fair bit of improvement on last year's tournament which witnessed participation of five teams from three states of India. This year, with the immense popularity of the sport increasing day by day, a new state featured in the tournament from West Bengal, the birth place of Footy in India. All up there were six teams participating- three junior teams and three senior teams. The senior teams were Bengal Tigers, Maharashtra Giants and Kerala Bombers and the junior teams were Maharashtra Giants, Maharashtra Tigers and Tamil Nadu Kangaroos. All the teams played in round robin format with the top teams qualifying for the Grand Final. This year the tournament witnessed two winners-one in the senior division and one in the junior division attesting the fact that the popularity of Footy in India is disseminating like wildfire.
 

Football in New Zealand continues to be supported by high quality touring Australian teams.

Locally this weekend sees the Senior Championships (NPC), all local Leagues have played their Grand Finals or are due to and the school-age Hawks Cup has recently been completed. It is important that all of this local footy leads to opportunities for the players to be tested against Australians.

The schoolboys aged U16 from the Hawks Cup will play the touring Flying Boomerangs which provides real purpose for their involvement in AFL.