World Footy News

I am very lucky that I can travel the stretch of road between Cairns and Townsville many times a year. The drive takes in some of the finest scenery in Australia. Along the way there are the imposing twin mountains, Bartle Frere and Bellenden Ker, with their luxuriant rainforest canopies.

There is the beach at Cardwell with its views across to majestic Hinchinbrook Island. Mile upon mile of sugar cane farms surrounding the towns of Gordonvale, Innisfail, Tully and Ingham in the valleys of the Mulgrave, Johnston, Tully and Herbert Rivers.

Then there are the detours to Mission Beach, Wallaman Falls, Paluma and more. It truly is an amazing part of the world.

At either and of the drive are two growing cities. They are rivals in many ways - complementary in others. Some believe that Cairns is the “tourist capital” of the north and others see Townsville as the “administrative capital”. These descriptions are too simplistic, and are an argument for another day. What is becoming clear, however, is that these two northern cities in tropical Australia are about to become locked in a battle to see an AFL team franchise based there by 2030.

The German state of Baden-Württemberg, located in the country's south-west, has been represented in the AFLG by the Stuttgart Emus for a number of years now. Besides the Emus however, there are also a number of regional towns where interested German and Australian footy fanatics are working on the creation of new clubs, with the possibility that this year may see a local league start play.

The most active of the regional teams are the Taipans, founded in the medium-sized city of Ludwigsburg around 15km north of Stuttgart. Ludwigsburg has been home to a number of Stuttgart Emus players over the past few years, including local Kevin Kilger and Aussie expat Chris Robertson, a native of Williamstown in Melbourne's inner-west who has played with the Emus since 2009 and coached them in the second half of the 2011 season.

The West Perth Football Club was much like other historic football clubs that find themselves at the mercy of changing demographics and now classified as "inner city".

In 1994 West Perth bit the bullet and moved from their traditional Italian community based Leederville to the populous new city of Joondalup. It was a major upheaval, with clashes between the members wishing to remain “West Perth” and the club’s desire to appeal to the new and wider community of Joondalup.

In 2012 the club successfully promoted the idea of a WAFL International Round with the West Perth F.C. donning Union Jack style jumpers and appealing to the large English immigrant community. The club also undertook an energetic campaign of attending all 65 schools in the area and engaging the media. 6044 people attended, the second largest WAFL H&A of the season against poorly supported Subiaco F.C.

A new club on the German scene will enter regular play this year, with long time Rheinland Lions stalwart Chris Odenthal having built up a club in the eastern city of Dresden over the past 10 months.

Chris played seven seasons with the Rheinland Lions and has also represented the German Black Eagles on the European stage - now he's hoping to apply his experience to a new club.

LEFT: The Dresden Wolves in 2012 (wearing old Düsseldorf Lions jumpers until their own arrive)

This is a media release from the AFL Northern Territory sheds a new light on the importance of the Northern Territory to Australian Rules football nationally in terms of how many kids are making it through the talent pathways to AFL teams.

“AFL International and National Talent Manager Kevin ‘Shifter’ Sheehan has released some statistics which shows the Northern Territory is in the top three of AFL talent producers between 1997-2011.

“The NT has been a steady contributor to the AFL system over a number of years and these statistics put them in the top three behind Vic Metro and South Australia,” advised Sheehan.

The study conducted by Griffith University, has the Northern Territory producing on average 12.08 players per 1000 participants aged between 13 and 18 as compared to Vic Metro 14.13 and South Australia 12.35.

“When you break it down on comparison and based on population the Northern Territory are clearly doing the right things to foster and develop talent and with a little more refinement I think we can get that number higher.”

“If you look at 2012 the NT had three players drafted which is above the 2.5 average they have had between 1997-2011.”

Sudanese born Majak Daw speaks about the preseason how he sees his season ahead.

[youtube:HPe0QU9YqAw]

The AFL today announced the launch of a new international subscription service, AFLTV, offering overseas fans unprecedented viewing access to AFL matches.
Developed in conjunction with Rightster, the online video distribution and marketing specialist, AFLTV is an innovative subscription service providing access to live and on demand AFL games to fans outside of Australia and New Zealand.

This is the only international service that offers exclusive access to every single 2013 Toyota AFL season match live and on–demand across multiple devices - desktop, phone and tablet - with a range of new purchasing options designed to accommodate the differing needs of international AFL fans.

AFL PNG has been building consistantly in recent years and 2013 sees potential further growth in the senior competition which given the numbers participating in junior footy in PNG - it is good to see the Port Moresby senior league consolidating upon that. The following is a press release from AFL PNG.

Preparations have commenced for the 2013 BSP AFLPNG Premiership, and two new teams are on track to join the competition. AFLPNG Senior Football Manager Connie Papau announced today that: “Taurama Diggers and Gulf Isapeas have commenced training and expressed interest in joining the eight team BSP Port Moresby AFL Competition. If all clubs return in 2013, we may have a 10 team competition”.

The DAFL community is in mourning following the death of one of the pioneers of Australian football in Denmark, Mark Zaga, who passed away aged 51 on the weekend after a brief illness.

Mark, whose full surname was Zagodinos but was generally shortened to Zaga, was a key personality in the DAFL's beginnings in the early 90s, when the league was just coming together and games were played at the public park at Fælledparken.

He coached the Amager Tigers to premierships in 1992, 1993 and 1995 and among the players of that club at the time his popularity was legendary, a fact confirmed by the messages of respect on the DAFL and Amager facebook pages. He won the hearts of a lot of young Danish players and convinced them that footy really was the greatest game on the planet.

Mark went on to be the president of the DAFL in 1996 and 1997 at a time when almost no-one took on the thankless task for more than one year. He was also the coach of the first DAFL representative team to play outside Denmark - against Great Britain in London in 1994.

After his involvement in DAFL, Mark was very successful in the hair care industry in Denmark.

The writing staff at worldfootynews.com join members of the DAFL in extending our sympathies to Mark's family at this very sad time.

Melbourne are the latest AFL club to sign a Kiwi kid after Maia Westrupp impressed the Demons at the AFLNZ combine held last month in Wellington.  Westrupp has been signed as an International Scholarship player and measures up at 185cm and 87kg. 

Westrupp said it was “pretty exciting” joining the Demons.  “It’s something new for me, but it’s been a real good experience [already]. The past 24 hours have been pretty surreal, especially in the short timeframe that it’s happened. Now, I’m just looking forward to it. I’ve seen a little bit of the professionalism around the facilities and it’s great to be here.  I started playing about two weeks ago, so that’s why it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I had a few trainings – and I’ve [already] been put in my place –and they’ve said my aerobic has got a bit to work on.”

Westrupp will remain in NZ for 2013 where he will be studying at the Unviersity of Auckland and will carry out a development program created for him by the Melbourne Football Club.

 

For more see - http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2013-02-12/dees-sign-scholarship-player.workstation

The Australian Football League (AFL) today confirmed that it has selected Rightster, the online video distribution and marketing specialist, to launch live AFLTV; an innovative subscription service providing access to live and on demand AFL games to fans outside of Australia and New Zealand. This is set to be the only international service that offers access to every single AFL match live and on–demand in the coming season.

AFL is the highest-level professional competition in the sport of Australian Rules football and serves as the sport’s governing body, overseeing all aspects of the game. As the most popular sporting league in Australia, the AFL consists of 18 teams spread over five states in Australia. In a drive to distribute its online content to a wider audience and build interest in Australian Rules Football outside Australia and New Zealand, AFL called on Rightster for its expertise in maximising the reach and revenue potential of online video, as well as its remarkable track record in building larger audiences for the online video content of major content owners in the sporting industry.

The return of AFL football in 2013 was today heralded by the launch of the 2013 NAB Cup. This year’s NAB Cup was launched at Etihad Stadium today by three players set to make highly anticipated debuts for new clubs in Friday night’s opening round.

As AFL fans prepare to see how their team is shaping up in 2013, the pre-season competition was ushered in by two of the highest profile off-season free agents, Essendon’s Brendon Goddard and Collingwood’s Clinton Young, along with one of the game’s brightest new recruits, Western Bulldogs rookie Jackson Macrae.

Essendon, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs will kick off this year’s NAB Cup with all three teams taking on each other at Etihad Stadium this Friday, February 15 (from 6.45pm).
Whether it's a rookie selected early in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft or those established players who have moved clubs via free agency in the off-season, this year’s NAB Cup once again provides the first chance to ‘see how they shape up’ ahead of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.