World Footy News

Ruby Leete is a well known name in women’s football in the north of Queensland. The Papua New Guinea born star grew up in Port Moresby and moved to Australia in 1996. Once settled in her new home of Cairns, she soon picked up the Aussie sports bug, first playing tennis, then netball, then rugby league. However it was only in 2009 after someone at her rugby club invited her to have a go that she got hooked on AFL.

Leete learnt her trade under premiership winning team North Cairns Tigers, and supported by her netballer’s jump and firm hands, the club continued to dominate week after week in the growing Cairns league. However, after playing for the Tigers for two seasons, Leete eventually decided to switch to her current team, South Cairns Cutters.

Zach Tuohy and Marty Clarke continue to be solid weekly contributors in Carlton and Collingwood's AFL teams. Pearce Hanley returns from injury this week for Brisbane, Niall McKeever played two weeks ago for them but won't be in the senior side this week. Setanta o'hAilpin is sidelined with injury this week after kicking eight goals in the past two games at GWS while across at the Swans Tommy Walsh has been named on an extened bench and will be hopeful of his first senior match for 2013.

But another Irish youth (albeit Australian raised) will debut for the GWS this week. Eighteen year-old defender Aidan Corr will make his AFL debut against Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

The GWS Giants have released the following official interview with European scholarship player Aksel Bang from Denmark, including some talk about his time in the Danish military in Afghanistan and footy in Europe. Aksel will play for the GWS reserves next weekend, before returning to his military service in Afghanistan.

This ANZAC weekend proved to be a blockbuster for Australian football in Asia, with international East Asia Australian Football League (EAAFL) matches played in two countries, and many domestic matches played across the continent.

The Vietnam Swans hosted the Jakarta Bintangs in Vung Tau, while the Singapore Wombats hosted both the Malaysia Warriors and Cambodian Eagles. There were important domestic ANZAC matches played in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Philippines.

The Swans were defeated by the Bintangs in a close match at the old Lord Mayor’s Oval in Vung Tau. The field is inside a greyhound racing track, but was the very same oval where Australian soldiers played footy during the Vietnam War. The significant event even attracted the presence of three Vietnam Veterans who had graced that very field in the 1960s.

Jakarta won the match 10.9 (69) to Vietnam’s 8.11 (59), marking a win for Jakarta’s first EAAFL match in front of over 500 spectators. This leaves Vietnam winless after their third EAAFL match.

The NZ Hawks have completed a clean sweep in their series against the South Pacific Academy, defeating the South Pacific with a big last quarter at Hutt Valley Oval.

With the average age of the Hawks 22 against an Under 18 team this is a result that shouldn't surprise. However with the scores tied up at three quarter time it took a monster quarter with the wind on the open expanses of the Hutt Valley Oval for the Hawks to take control.

For further details, read Hawks make it two from two on the AFLNZ website.

During the half time break a fantastic game of AFL 9’s was played by various male and female media and sporting personalities. In all honesty as an observer I can say the skill level was quite high!

To see this game surrounded by a number of grid games involving children lends credence to AFLNZ’s belief that it is reaching a wide audience.

For more on the half time entertainment and photos of the event please view AFL 9's a hit with sports stars
 

Friday 26th April saw a united effort from the AFL, AFL NZ and the St Kilda Saints in a 4 hour promotion at Wellington's prestigious Basin Reserve.

Well over 1,000 participants attended the event, which had a "Meet the Saints" component that drew a number of their Melbourne based fans. For footy in NZ, it was more about allowing for direct action to follow up the previous night's game to increase participation and interest.

AFLNZ Board Chairman Geoff Dickson sees the game as a great leverage point. "Well, the game is over and we are the ones who really have to care about, and develop, footy now," said Dickson.

He continued, "What the game may enable our organisation to do is to get into more schools quicker and perhaps to attract more of the elite players to the game, whether from the Rugby First XV, League First XIII or Soccer First XI."

St Kilda have finally found their first international rookie in Porirua College's Joseph Baker-Thomas (photos courtesy AFL Media).

Joseph is 16 years old and around 193 cm. He has a background in a variety of sports including rugby, League, volleyball and basketball.

He has played 4 games of AFL 9's and played his first three games of full football at this week's NZ U18 Championships.

In speaking with him today he said "I am hugely excited about this opportunity and hope I can make the most of it".

Having seen him today on The Basin whilst Wellington had further Aussie Rules action with St Kilda meeting their supporters at the AFL NZ Have a Go day there is no doubt that he has the physical attributes to potentially play AFL.
 

For the many of us who dream of Australian football expanding more rapidly internationally there can be no doubt what would most accelerate the growth in any given country - having their own AFL club.  So it was unexpected music to our ears to hear (or in fact read) the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key declare that his country should have an AFL side.

The comment came at an official function prior to the St Kilda - Sydney match in Wellington.  Key said the unique relationship between the countries, coupled with a fierce mutual sporting rivalry, made the concept a perfect platform for the Australian game.

''Let's get real,'' he said. ''We've got to get a New Zealand side in the AFL. We've got the Breakers and we've got the Warriors - well, they've been struggling a bit lately - we need our own AFL team.''
 

The AFL Anzac Day clash was not all about the Swans and the Saints. A crowd which grew from around 100 to 2000 spectators saw a very good game of running football played between the NZ Hawks and the South Pacific Academy U18's.

Predictably the Hawks won, with an average age of 22 against a younger and far less experienced team. Many of the Hawks had been part of the game against the AIS in January so had experience of the venue and experience playing together.

With nine of the younger Hawks part of the South Pacific team, it gave a chance for a further group of players to represent their country for the first time. NZ coaching team member Justin Davies said that "In the end this allows another group of players to get used to our systems and practices and then return to their home areas and implement these there".

Rod Shaw is World Footy News' New Zealand correspondent but now based in Victoria.  In a bold move for a volunteers-based website we sent him to Wellington for the first AFL regular season match to be played outside of Australia.  Rod has had a long involvement in footy in Wellington and was New Zealand's senior coach at the 2002 International Cup.

Last night saw the historic first game for Premiership points played in Wellington. The Sydney Swans went on to win in a hard fought game over the St Kilda Saints. Brodie Murdoch on debut for the Saints kicked long into the forward line and Justin Koschitzke, playing his first game for the year, clutched a strong grab and converted. He has the honour of scoring the first goal on an international field in an AFL game that really matters (i.e. not pre-season or exhibition).

For me it was a coming home in a sense, having spent over ten years in Wellington I had the good fortune to participate in all three pre-season games in various ways held between 1998-2002.

Without a doubt this game has been set up for success far better in so many ways than the earlier pre-season games.

With the addition of the Gold Coast Suns and the Great Western Sydney Giants the drafts were compromised severely affecting the other 16 AFL Clubs from accessing the best young talent. Visionary clubs such as Hawthorn stepped out to get players of a suitable standard from elsewhere.  They set up a Memorandum of Understanding with AFLNZ and the AFL to set up talent identification programs such as the Hawks Cup that also helps NZ football to build a base of players and real awareness of the game.

Meanwhile St Kilda used a different approach. They have held a couple of community camps in NZ and once they got permission to play the Anzac game they have drip fed a variety of players, coaches and administrators to Wellington in the months preceding the game. This has helped them gain great media coverage. I have been assured by my many friends and contacts in Wellington that this game has been a source of discussion in many workplaces around and about the capital.

In the week preceding the game the amount of coverage in all forms of media has been sensational and is a direct result of the preparation put into the game by all the stakeholders inclusive of the AFL, St Kilda, Sydney, AFLNZ and not least the Wellington City Council.

“Football has a long history in the community of Wadeye that dates back to the start of the Mission in June of 1935. The families of Wadeye had their own traditional sport that involved throwing a man-made paperbark ball covered in kangaroo hide. However when the Mission arrived, Father Docherty (or Yile Ngala as he is referred to by the locals) and some indigenous men from Darwin, introduced the football and the art of kicking. From that point on AFL has been the game of choice for everyone in the community.”

This introduction to the footballing heritage of the Wadeye community is provided by Katrina Bushby, the Club Development Manager at the Wadeye Magic Football Club, in one of the many remote parts of the Northern Territory. Katrina’s keen insight into the development of the game is a great starting point for one of the more remarkable footy stories in Australia.

Wadeye, formerly known as Port Keats, is in the far north-west corner of the Northern Territory on the western boundary of the Daly River Reserve, near Hyland Bay. It is 230 kilometres by air from Darwin, and further by road – assuming the roads are open, as they are often cut by flooding during the “wet” season.