World Footy News

Thanks to Zain Nabi for the following article.

Pakistan Shaheen Team Manager Kashif Bouns has welcomed the overwhelming response from the Pakistani community in Australia, particularly the students, who have strongly backed the idea of entering the 2014 Australia Football League International Cup.

Following submission of nomination papers with the AFL, the Shaheens are now in the team building phase. Bouns believes students will play a handy role in forming a competitive unit. “I think the core of the team will be international students because the majority of Pakistanis here are students,” he says.

Apart from hiring athletes, the Shaheens are also shaping their organisational infrastructure and they have urged the Pakistani community here to participate in all the possible ways, and take up the ownership of this project.

Last weekend the first ever game of AFL played by women in NZ was held against the visiting Australia Breeze Youth Girls Team.

Though the result was a sound thrashing for the Kiwis nevertheless Women’s football has to start somewhere in NZ and now it has.

The result really was inconsequential as with all of the development programs through primary and secondary schools in NZ administered through AFL NZ such as KiwiKick, Hawks Cup and Play AFL 9’s the opportunities are there for the females in NZ to become increasingly involved.

Stand outs for the Kahus (Hawks in maori) on the day were Kayla Paniora, Firth Bidois, Claudia McMeekin-Currin and Kiana Laing.

The Victorian Amateur Football Association have continued their winning ways in New Zealand, beating the U-18 New Zealand Hawks 105-60.

The match was a fitting finale for the tour, with the result reflecting both the competitive nature of both matches, and the superior skill of VAFA.

For the Hawks, there were a number of strong performances. Rhys Panui-Leth, a former International Scholarship holder for Hawthorn, played a match befitting the honour of captaining his country, through his leadership in the midfield and poise in front of goal. Alex Barnsley was also a threat throughout the game, using physicality fearlessly to put pressure on his opposition.

During the game stars in the first match Kade Riddell and James McKenzie were again to the fore both kicking brilliant goals for the Hawks. By the end of the third quarter the Aussies were up tellingly 90-42.

The European Crusaders women’s team defeated the French Inattendues 45-26 at the Axios Euro Cup’s women’s game.

The women’s game was played in four quarters of fifteen minutes. The Crusaders, let by experienced Italian coach Mattia Sacchi, came out far stronger than the French expected, and the Inattendues, led by coach Pascal Ivorra, we not able to keep up. However, despite both sides having many players new to the game, the game was still very exciting and both sides showed great skill throughout the game. Switzerland player Erin Walter was named best on ground.

Narrowed down from a squad of 33 a little over a month ago the Australian team of 21 players for the International Rules series in Ireland has been named. The AFL chose to make up this year's team from players of Indigenous Australian heritage. They depart for Ireland on Saturday.

AFL New Zealand have hosted in conjunction with the 2013 AFL Grand Final, an annual Community Awards function.

The event was an opportunity to recognise and thank the many people and partner organisations that have contributed to the success of AFL New Zealand over the past year.

The many different aspects of AFL New Zealand’s strategies and programmes were put on display throughout the Community Awards. Encompassing and recognising the contributions of primary and secondary schools, regional sporting trusts, media organisations or AFL New Zealand High Performance participants and parents, the awards covered the breadth of the AFL community.

Last week we posted a story about the grand finals across the five major Australian Football leagues in the tropics (above the Tropic of Capricorn) of Queensland (see: ). This follow up story looks at the grand final stories of the big games across the Northern Territory. As a point of interest, many of these leagues played their finals much earlier in the year, but by including all that we can a bigger picture of the scope of Australian Rules football across the NT can be seen.

 

The VAFA U 18's are currently in NZ and have played the first game, in a 3 match series against the NZ Hawks.

For the first time the NZ team opposed to the Victorians is of the same age range, with previous tours being against a NZ team with older boys. As the talent pool in NZ has increased, the need for this advantage has decreased.

Once again the Victorians were too good but players who stood out in the NZ Hawks/ South Pacific Academy game on Anzac Day as the curtain raiser to the Sydney Swans/St Kilda game were once again prominent. Hawthorn scholarship holders Ben Miller and Siope Ngata were standouts as were Kade Riddell and James McKenzie who kicked 5 goals.

With the final scorse 103- 51 the Kiwis were by no means disgraced.

St Kilda has agreed to a new five-year deal to secure the Anzac Day fixture in Wellington, New Zealand until at least 2018.

The Saints hosted the first ever game for premiership points held outside Australia when it played the Sydney Swans at Westpac Stadium, Wellington on Anzac Day this year.

The club had initially agreed to play games in New Zealand for at least three years with the option of playing additional games from 2014.

The AFL's Talent Manager, Kevin Sheehan, discussed the 2013 AFL Draft Combine with WFN's Troy Thompson.  They chatted about how the international athletes fared at Etihad stadium in Melbourne.  With two players listed as international rookies with AFL clubs before the camp finished, one already listed last year and American Patrick Mitchell listed by the Swans earlier in the year after the US Combine - the AFL will be pleased with the fruits of their labour at the international combines in Europe and the US this year.  We've uploaded the audio and photos of some of the players to our youtube channel.

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(Better viewed by following the link)

After 40 years it's time to farewell "Footy Park", home of the SANFL, Adelaide Crows and home ground for Port Adelaide Power.

Building the stadium at West Lakes in Adelaide's western suburbs was considered a bold move or by some, foolhardy.  It was built on recovered marshland when tensions became too great between Aussie Rules (run in SA by the SANFL) and cricket (run by the SACA, headed by Sir Donald Bradman).  Football wanted a home of its own and in 1974 controversially moved away from the ground on which it had been played since the 1870s or earlier.

The move proved to be a great success and the financial risk was rewarded, and little did the SANFL know in those pre-AFL days that it would provide a cornerstone on which to build two AFL clubs, the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power.

But over the last decade AFL fans have seen numerous significant upgrades to stadia around Australia (though Football Park, or AAMI Stadium as it is currently branded, has also had improvements).  Perhaps most damaging of all to the Footy Park brand was Docklands (Etihad) Stadium in Melbourne - many footy fans have ventured across the border to experience what a modern roofed stadium in the CBD is like.  Despite a Labor government plan to spend $100million upgrading the stadium and a possible expansion back up towards 60,000 (after various upgrades had reduced the capacity) there were growing calls to start afresh.

So with crowds falling, the Liberal Party opposition proposing a roofed stadium in the city, the state Labor government looking to neutralise the issue, and the SACA (cricket) in major debt over its new stand at Adelaide Oval, the perfect storm emerged that saw a return to an upgraded Adelaide Oval.  Port Adelaide and Adelaide have now both farewelled Football Park (in terms of their final AFL matches there) and this weekend the 2013 SANFL Grand Final concludes official matches at the ground (although there have been suggestions it may still be used such as for NAB Cup).

Ireland International Rules manager Paul Earley today confirmed Michael Murphy as team captain for the upcoming Test series against Australia.

Murphy is the 2012 Donegal All-Ireland winning captain will lead Ireland’s campaign in both Cavan and at Croke Park as Ireland look to retain the Cormac McAnallen Cup won in Australia two years ago.

Murphy said: “It is a massive honour to be involved with the Irish team, never mind accepting the accolade to lead my country as team captain. “I have enjoyed immensely the experience of pulling on the Irish jersey in the past and I am especially looking forward to playing with the best footballers from our game against the visiting Australian team over the course of the two upcoming tests.”