World Footy News

The AFL today announced the 2013 World Team squad which will compete at the Under 16 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships in Sydney in July.

The 2013 squad will showcase the skills of talented international youngsters from South Africa, England, Ireland and Denmark, as well the best upcoming AFL multicultural players from across the nation. Disappointingly no international representatives from the US, Canada or Asian nations will be part of the team this year.

Premiership player and former Carlton captain Anthony Koutoufides has been named head coach of the World Team. "The World Team provides international and multicultural AFL players with elite training, personal development and AFL talent pathway opportunities," said Koutoufides.

“We were in a Newcastle bar… the Shark Bar... at what was supposed to be a sports networking event: free food/free beer. We'd previously discussed the possibility of a club via email over the preceding few months but got nowhere. Hardly anyone else turned up to this networking event so we got stuck in to the free beer! By the end of the night we had agreed to start the club, picked a training venue and date to start training and the Tigers were officially born.”

Such is the story of the birth of the Tyne Tees Tigers Australian Rules football club in the north east of England. The gathering of Ian Baxter, Anthony Nolan and Shaun Bulmer to pursue a means to keep their favourite sport alive in the region has led to the Tigers having served a local “social club” apprenticeship, and they are ready to join the AFLCNE (Australian Football League Central & Northern England) for the 2014 season.

Whilst not technically a “new” team, as they have been in existence in one form or other since 2007, they are quite definitely a new club in a variety of ways.

Cairns in winter is a magical place. Low humidity, warm days in the mid 20’s, sunny skies and the ever so gentle scents of the tropics…rainforests, beaches, suntan lotion, sugar cane and a myriad of dining smells mingling to create a sensory delight.

What better destination could there be to host the 2013 Women’s AFL national Championships?

There is a symbiotic relationship between women’s footy and Cairns. The North Queensland city was the first non-capital city to form a women’s league, and it is now the first non-capital city to host these national championships since their inception in 1996.

This year’s event sees teams coming from Victoria, Team WA, Queensland and New South Wales in Division One. South Australia, Tasmania, ACT and Arafura make up Division Two. The new Arafura team is made of women from Papua New Guinea, North Queensland (including Cairns) and the Northern Territory and replaces the NT Thunder team for this tournament.

The 2014 AFL International Cup, to be played in Melbourne from Saturday August 9 to Saturday August 23, will once again feature a two division competition for men and one division competition for women.  The men will be split after a day of short seeding matches, much the same as occurred in 2011.

New to the International Cup will be an AFL9s tournament, which the AFL describes as an "exciting and new evolution to the AFL International Cup with an objective of providing an entry level opportunity for a greater number of countries and teams to be involved".  Indeed the lure of a shorter stay with less players required could see a number of new nations participate for the first time, hopefully with the goal of graduating to the full-side version in future Cups.

Read on for the preliminary schedule of events.

Coca-Cola Binatangs ready for Queensland Championships

AFLPNG’s under 14 Coca-Cola Binatangs will depart this Thursday for the Gold Coast in Queensland to participate in the 2013 Queensland State Championships. The squad of 27 Young boys has been drawn from the Highlands (Goroka and Mt. Hagen), Islands (Kimbe/Hoskins and Kavieng) , Northern (Lae and Kainantu) and Port Moresby. Selection was via the Coca-Cola National Championships held in November last year at Lae’s Igam Barracks.

The following is from an AFL PNG press release

This media release from AFLNT details the plan to accept the Central Australian Redtails on an expanded, but not full, entry into the NTFL Premier League for 2014.

AFLNT BOARD RATIFIES CONDITIONAL INCLUSION OF REDTAILS INTO THE NTFL ON A ‘TRIAL GAME’ BASIS FOR SEASON 2013/14 & ENDORSES NTFL PLAYER POINTS SYSTEM

The AFLNT board has recommended that the Central Australian Redtails be admitted into the TIO NTFL Premier League for season 2013/14 on an eight (8) game trial basis.

Full time admission into the league thereafter is subject to successful completion of the 2013/14 8 game trial in addition to a further five (5) years of Federal funding being committed to existing AFLNT & NT Thunder Central Australian operations.

This year’s Women’s National Championships are being held in Cairns, Queensland. As usual, there will be two divisions:

Division 1 is the top tier of women’s football and includes the powerhouse football states of Victoria and Western Australia as well as strong state teams from Queensland and New South Wales, bursting out from traditional rugby territory.

Division 2 is a development league which comprises Australian Capital Territory, Arafura (Northern Queensland, Papua New Guinea and Northern Territory), South Australia and Tasmania.

The Arafura team takes the place of the usual Northern Territory state team whilst the Thunder rebuild their female talent program.  Read on for the full schedule.
 

The AFL today announced the 2014 International Cup will be held in Melbourne from Saturday August 9 to Saturday August 23, 2014.

The fifth International Cup carnival will include two AFL curtain-raiser matches, matches played at AFL and VFL venues, a men’s and women’s competition, a standalone AFL 9s fixture and matches linked with community football leagues.
 
 
AFL International Development Manager Tony Woods said the aim was to make IC14 the biggest International Cup to date.
 
 
“We are committed to building on the success of IC11 and we believe we can once again deliver a great experience for all participating nations by hosting this event in the AFL’s heartland.

Shem Tatupu was this week featured on Hawks TV with Mark Mckenzie discussing Shem's development as the club prepares to have him on board full time at the end of this year as an international rookie.

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Ed: WFN welcomes new correspondent Vineet Basu. Vineet is Media and Communications Coordinator of the Australian Rules Football Association in India.

May 2nd, 2013 - It was that kind of a summer day in Mumbai where people would rather stay indoor than venture out in the scorching heat outside, let alone play under such conditions.

Good luck getting that through to the 80 odd kids who turned up to play in an Australian Rules Football tournament in Mumbai, a considerably bigger affair than last year’s inaugural tournament! No wonder they’re always using the word ‘madness’ in the same breath as ‘Footy’. Well, madness it is and we love it!

Shivaji Park provided the setting for the clash between the Matunga Tigers and the Mahim Cats, the 2 local Footy teams in Mumbai. The lads were divided into 3 age groups viz Under-14, Under-18 and an open age group, to fight it out in a best of 3 format.

In October, over a hundred of Canada’s best women’s Australian Rules Football players will be in the nation’s capital to fight for the national championship title.

AFL Ontario club, the Ottawa Swans Australian Football Club, has won the bid to host the 2013 Women’s Canadian National Championships Oct. 11 to 13.

Australian Rules Football, also known as AFL or footy, is played widely in Australia through professional and recreational leagues. Internationally, especially on the women’s side, the sport has been rapidly growing.

“To say the team is excited is an understatement,” said Swans captain Lisa Dalla Rosa. “Knowing that this October we will be playing on our field, with our club, sponsors and city cheering us on will be great motivation not only for the tournament but for the up-coming season as well.  We cannot wait to host players from across Canada.  This is fantastic for women's footy in the capital."

The Ottawa Swans Australian Football Club was formed in 2006 by a group of Australian expats, and became a member of AFL Ontario and AFL Canada in 2007. The club has adopted the same name as the professional AFL club the Sydney Swans.

Both women’s and men’s teams play in the Ontario AFL, playing at home at the Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa and travelling to Toronto to face competition.

Saturday a week ago, Masala Football Club secured their first victory – quite fittingly at the season mid-point and against fellow multicultural football side the Dragons (formerly known as the Southern Dragons). For those unfamiliar with Masala, they appear in World Footy News stories: Masala Football Club is born and Masala debuts in the heat.

As club co-founder and current president (and a no-longer-so-active WFN correspondent) I take you behind the scenes of the club, and share our journey so far. Hopefully it’s an entertaining read – perhaps it might also prove useful to others in Australia or abroad working to get a club up and running.