World Footy News

There is something truly ominous brewing in the Middle East. Whilst the new 2013/14 season is only three games old, with Round 2 completed last week, it is the Dubai Dragons who are out of the blocks like a veritable Speedy Gonzales inviting all other teams to catch them if they are to be stopped from winning three flags in succession.

Granted, there is a long way to go. This year’s format for the AFL Middle east draw sees eight rounds, with each team playing six matches. There is plenty of time for some teams to fall away, others to come alive or upsets to occur. But therein lays one of the pointers to the season. Of the three games played, the Dragons have played two of them…for two wins.

With comfortable wins by 58 points against the Muscat Magpies and 51 points against the Abu Dhabi Falcons, the Dragons have two wins already from their 6 matches. They also play these two teams again of their remaining four. Statistically, it will already be difficult to peg them back.

But not impossible.

In the following press release from the Melbourne Football Club, and released jointly by the AFLNT, the strengthening of the ties between the two in 2014 are detailed. Combined with the matches in Cairns and Townsville, northern and central Australia are playing a greater part in hosting and showcasing the AFL and the game of Australian Rules football.

The Melbourne Football Club is pleased to announce that it has extended its partnership with ‘Tourism NT’.

As part of the agreement, Melbourne will play three games in the Northern Territory next season and will have the ‘Tourism NT’ branding appear on the Club’s playing shorts.

Melbourne’s three games in the Northern Territory will see the Club play the first AFL match for premiership points in Alice Springs, the now traditional game in Darwin for the fifth consecutive year, as well as a NAB Cup game in Alice Springs in February.

‘Tourism NT’ is the promotional and development agency of the Northern Territory Government. The Club has had an ongoing relationship with the Top End dating back to 2010, when the Club first played a home game in Darwin. Melbourne’s partnership with ‘Tourism NT’ was elevated at the start of 2013 when it became a commercial partner of the Club, and this agreement will see it remain at Melbourne until at least the end of 2014.

It has been almost a year since World Footy News posted an article about the journey of four young indigenous footballers from Cairns and Torres Strait and their respective pathways to Australian Rules football (see From Paradise To The Pinnacle Of Success).

Since that time, Josh, Nathaniel, Henry and Leo have travelled further along their paths. Some have enjoyed success, changed clubs, done it tough or developed other parts of their lives. But no matter what, their eyes are firmly fixed on the path being blazed by another of their friends…one with a name that already stands out, and may soon have a playing resume to match: Didymus Blanket.

At a recent combine screening day at St Andrew’s College in Cairns I was able to arrange for an interview with Didymus as he sets his compass towards the possibility of selection at the AFL National Draft in 2015.

Didymus is a humble young man, but he certainly has a drive and direction that could be the prototype for other Torres Strait islander kids, and other indigenous players from Cairns to Cape York, to follow.

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviewed AFL Fiji's secretary Robert Wolfgramm - this time no audio is available.

Australian Footy in Fiji traces its roots back to 2004, and a former Fiji Police Commissioner, Andrew Hughes, an Australian who had played some amateur football in Australia and was keen to grow the game in Fiji. At a meeting in mid 2004, Hughes called a meeting of interested Police officers with the intent of using the Force as the basis for developing a local football competition. According to the Police Public Relations Officer at the time, Mesake Koroi , ‘many top rugby players joined in and it started off well, but there was no one except Hughes to run the programme, so it was hard because, of course, he had other police work to attend to’.

In 2005, Robert Wolfgramm (formerly of Melbourne University) of the Fiji Daily Post met with Hughes to express his interest in Australian Football and his desire to help by giving the sport publicity through the newspaper. However, the Fiji Football Association would wind up at the end of that year due to lack of resources and direction without formally setting up a league.

2011 Northern Lights player Renee Tong has come one step closer to realising her ambition of playing for her country again at IC14 after winning Canadian wellbeing and supplements company Genuine Health’s $10,000 prize for having the most votes in support of her athletic dream.

Tong’s goal was to use the money towards the flight, accommodation and training costs necessary to compete at the next International Cup. Over 20,000 people voted for her in a tight run but controversial competition, where closest rival, barrel racing fan Marissa Zwicker, was disqualified for cheating when it was revealed her sister was allegedly visiting “pay for votes” Facebook groups and defaming Tong’s character on various chat forums. 

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviews Thomas Urban and Alan Schieber from French footy's CNFA. You can read more about this interview here.

LEFT: Karmichael Hunt kicks the Suns' match-winner after the siren against Richmond in Cairns in 2013

North Queenslanders have breathed a collective sigh of relief after the official release of the AFL draw for the 2014 season. After farewelling Richmond back in July it was unclear as to whether or not the region would host another AFL game. But, thankfully, these fears are now allayed.

Both Cairns and Townsville will be hosting matches next year, with an NAB Challenge match to be played at Tony Ireland Stadium in Thuringowa and a premiership match at the home of football in Far North Queensland, Cazalys Stadium.

With the revised format for the NAB Challenge, 18 matches will be played over 18 consecutive days in all parts of the country. On Sunday 23rd February the two Queensland teams, Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions, will play a state derby at the home of football in Townsville. The stadium is still in the process or organising AFL standard lighting for night or twilight matches, so the game will commence at 3.40pm to be played in full with sufficient light and also be slightly cooler playing conditions.

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviews the Ontario Australian Football Leauge's Director of Development, Morgan King. You can read more about this interview here.

The AFL Queensland Girls State Championships have played out in Brisbane this weekend. In its eighth year, the competition has shifted south, from Cairns to the AFL Queensland Administration and Training Centre, Yeronga. This is the second season the competition has been for under-17, transitioning from the previous Under-16 format. Amongst the sides participating is the AFL PNG Coca-Cola Under 17 Kurukums – being the first time PNG has been represented in this tournament.

With some girls only arriving from Port Moresby about an hour before the game – the Kurukums were up against it against the bigger and stronger South West Magpies side. It should be noted that over half of the Kurukums are under 15 years of age and that the PNG squad is actually the youngest of the (for the first time) 8 sides in the tournament.

In the next installment of Jason Lassey's interviews for Bigfooty Media about footy outside Australia he speaks to the President of the Croatian league, Josip Kravar. You can read more about this interview here.

Interview and article courtesy of Scott Patching

In what is surely a rare, if not unique, dual achievement for an international player in Australia, Great Britain’s Will Worthington has captained a premiership side, and claimed the team’s best and fairest award. Worthington led Onkaparinga Valley Bulldogs to victory in South Australia’s Hills Central Division B grade on the 14th of September, before taking out the highest individual prize, and the Players MVP, the following weekend.

The stories of people from overseas that come to Australia to play footy are often intriguing as we struggle to imagine our game being played anywhere else. Will’s is no different. 9-a-side footy on rugby fields in the south of England must seem a distant memory when playing in front of a few thousand people at a country Grand Final. In between there have been the lows of injury and the highs of national representation.

It is three thousand odd kilometres between Punjab in north India to Kerala far down south. It’s another 2000 kilometres between Gujarat far west and West Bengal on the eastern borders. Massive distance the figures suggest and the present Secretary General of the Australian Rules Football Association of India, Sudip Chakraborty, has travelled the length and breadth of the nation repeatedly for the past 12 months just for footy. Starting from the national championships in Kerala in 2012 and set to culminate in another championship in Goa this November, this twelve months has been one hell of a ride for this footy vagabond.  

A cricket fanatic and open to new ventures, Sudip jumped on the footy bandwagon in 2008 and before long he had become an integral part of the sporting activities in the country. By the end of 2011, Sudip had already represented his country in two International Cups, and as the days rolled on, what started as an exploration, turned into a vision and a stubborn will to make his dream come true.