World Footy News

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This weekend international Australian football in north America will be highlighted as Canada and the United States compete in the 49th Parallel Cup on Canadian soil in Edmonton.

The Canadian national team, the Northwind, has been working hard since January for this game. The coaching staff feel they have one of their best teams, one which has been built around a group of players working hard to become solid unit. There is a belief amongst the squad that they can beat any team they face

Over the past year the Canadian team has been focusing on improving their skill sets and football knowledge, key areas in which Canadian national coach, Benjamin Roberts, believes will make this one of Canada’s most competitive teams.

New Zealand’s Shem Tatupu, who will become an international rookie at Hawthorn in 2014 (current scholarship listed), has recently been in Melbourne playing for the Oakleigh Chargers in the elite TAC Cup under 18s competition.

He kicked 1.1 in the Chargers' win over the Northern Knights during July, with his marking a feature. Earlier in the year he kicked two goals each in games against Western Jets and Geelong Falcons. His marking again in both games was a highlight.

At this stage, he appears to be giving away a number of frees but as his game awareness and body positioning improves this is likely to alter. Or maybe, as he is Hawthorn listed, he might follow Buddy Franklin’s lead and still remain in the negative for frees for and against but become a very dominant footballer! Time will tell.

For more, see the article International Projects on the AFL website, or visit SportingPulse to see Shem's player stats or the match stats from his appearance with the Chargers.

WFN reported PNG U/14s success signals NEAFL future for PNG/Sth Pacific. recently on the NEAFL potential of PNG either via more players involved if not PNG representation with AFL PNG General Manager Murray Bird suggesting the talent is such that one day the Mosquitoes could find a place stand alone in the NEAFL.

AFL Vanuatu has come a fair way since the very early days and through the Vanuatu Volcanoes they represent their nation with pride. However the social and economic challenges faced in such a country mean that stories such as this are all the more important.

Victorian footy club Olinda Ferny Creek – nestled in the Dandenongs between Ferntree Gully and Olinda – is set for a footy trip with a difference when they embark on an AFL development tour to Vanuatu at season's end this September.

On the 17th of July, the leading women involved in football in Europe (outside of Ireland) got together via tele-conferencing to discuss this year’s Axios Euro Cup, which will be held in Bordeaux on the 21st of September.

For the last few years, Ireland has managed to a field a team, and another country (or a collaboration of countries, such as last year’s European Crusaders) has also put a team in to play them in a women’s exhibition match. However, with the women’s game finally beginning to grow outside of Ireland, it might finally be possible to have a genuine women’s competition alongside the men’s competition at this year’s Euro Cup.

As this year’s Euro Cup will be hosted in France, and with a number of female players in Bordeaux, Paris and Toulouse, AFL France’s Women’s Football Co-ordinator, Berengere Portal, has confirmed that the French aim to put out a home side.

The Victorian Women’s Football League Executive and its clubs have voted to transfer the governance and maintenance of the league to AFL Victoria. The transfer will be competed by the 1st of November, 2013.

The vote is the culmination of more than a year of work between the VWFL, AFL Victoria and the Transitional Working Group. The TWG was formed in May 2012 to develop a future competition model for women’s clubs.

AFL Victoria’s General Manager, Grant Williams, said that the changes would be a positive step for women’s football in Victoria. He pointed to the current collaborative approach and the recent successes of the state team as an example of how the women’s game will further develop in Victoria. He also thanked the VWFL Executive for their input into making the vote happen.

As part of the transfer, the existing VWFL, which features a premiers and reserves metro league with two country leagues, will be restructured to form a true state level competition. Williams believes that this will help further develop the pathway for female football players in Victoria and enhance initiatives such as the AFL Victoria VWFL Academy.

VWFL President Naomi Hurst said that the new structure would be more efficient and effective for administering the women’s leagues in Victoria. She also said that the considerable expertise and resources of AFL Victoria would provide invaluable support and guidance in managing the development of the women’s game into the future.

Collaboration with state AFL organisations has been very successful for women’s football leagues in the Rugby League heartlands of New South Wales and Queensland, whilst the women’s leagues in the smaller states of ACT and Tasmania, both of which did well at the recent Women’s National Championships, would not exist without AFL support.

In our previous story An Avalanche of Austrian Talent about the rebuilding of Australian Rules football in Austria, Oliver Krajacic painted a picture of a re-birth of sorts, due mainly to hard work and a connection to the Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.

That was on the back of a hectic off-season which saw structural and planning changes for Austrian footy, but was also rather theory-based. The measure of success would be tangible progress and change for the better as the 2013 season wore on.

At this point, Oliver can fill in the blanks.

“Our president Martin Schittegg had come up with the idea of holding an Austrian championship of sorts after we picked up some new players throughout the course of the year. By adding some retired veterans, some interested newcomers and our new additions to the team, we managed to put together the Murtal Mountain Goats, Gradec Earthmovers and Castle Rock Mammoths.”

GSCN will last week provided a live stream of the USAFL match between the Columbus Jackaroos and the Nashville Kangaroos. You can now hear the audio on demand at this link - http://www.gemcitysports.com/7132013-columbus-vs-nashville-australian-football/