World Footy News

The New Zealand Hawks team to play the visiting AIS AFL Academy side at Westpac Stadium on Saturday the 26th of January has been announced with a major shock being the inclusion of 44 year old AFL legend Wayne Schwass joining Frankston’s VFL powerhouse forward Khan Haretuku on-field. Schwass (pictured left), who was born in NZ, will fulfill a lifelong ambition to wear the Silver Fern and his involvement is sure to not just be good for him but great for football.  He played 282 games across his career with North Melbourne and the Sydney Swans.

Of interest to football followers concerned with the international growth of the game, NZ will field 8 teenagers in their squad of 25 spearheaded by Shem Tatupu, who Hawthorn have committed to listing as an International Rookie alongside Kurt Heatherley in 2014 and Ben Miller, who is one of five young Kiwis to be awarded an International Scholarship so far.
 

St Kilda Football Club players and officials arrived tonight in Wellington to take part in the first Australia Post AFL Community Camp in New Zealand.

 “These camps provide a tremendous boost to communities across Australia and we’re hoping we can do the same in New Zealand. We want immerse ourselves in the Wellington culture and encourage them to become involved with St Kilda Football Club,” Head Coach, Scott Watters said.
  
During the camp, the Saints will take part in a host of activities, including an AFL Super Clinic, open training sessions and meeting the Wellington sporting fans.
 

Head Coach Kevin Sheedy will visit Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory tomorrow to launch a new partnership between the Giantsand the Galiwin'ku community. Sheedy, a passionate advocate of Indigenous Australia, will meet members of the community and attend a local football match.

Galiwin'ku, about 520 kilometres from Darwin, is the largest community on Elcho Island and the second largest Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory with a population of 2290 people. It was the inspiration for the song 'My Island Home', originally performed by the Warumpi Band, and later also performed by Christine Anu. It is also home to the blind Aboriginal folk singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

AFL South Africa has named the South Africa (Geminder Youth Academy) Squad To Play Against Australia Flying Boomerangs U/17 - on the 28th January and 1st February 2013.  This is an U/18 Squad topped up with 5 players U/20 years.

4. Tshepiso Mogapi

As previously reported, The Flying Boomerangs are once again headed for a tour of South Africa.  The concept is a personal development and leadership program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young men aged 14 -15 years-old, supported by the Coles AFL Indigenous Program.

Selected from the 2012 AFL KickStart Under-15 Championships, the Flying Boomerangs squad of 25 players will play two matches against South African teams in Potchefstroom and Durban, coached by former St Kilda player Raphael Clarke.

The Boomerangs will also conduct a footyWILD clinic in Cape Town township, visit Table Mountain and Robben Island where former South Africa President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1964 for 18 years before being moved to another prison.

AFL National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud and AFL Indigenous Programs Coordinator Xavier Clarke are attending the tour.

Itinerary and squad listed below:
 

The Flying Boomerangs are holding true to their name and returning to South Africa for the fourth time later this month.

“It’s always a great opportunity for our town, Potchefstroom to host overseas visitors and most important for kids who are involved in our program throughout the year to come and witness the exciting game playing live. Our South Africa Lions players to get more experience and help prepare for the International Cup in 2014, which I hope to be part of once more,”  said Sipho Magongo, footyWILD Development Coordinator.

For a bit of fun take a look at the Youtube video put together by two Australian girls kicking the footy around the world.  A similar idea has been mooted before as a promo video for the International Cup with players from each country kicking the footy around the world, but is yet to happen.

[youtube:ECbeHmpXQGM]

North Melbourne International rookie Eric Wallace is currently in Tasmania where the club is in training for the upcoming 2013 AFL season. He spoke to SEN Radio in Melbourne yesterday morning about his journey so far. He will today front the media at a press call in Tasmania. The interview can be heard in the Youtube clip below.

[youtube:GwnVogzZ3sE]

You can follow Eric's Blog HERE.

Back in 2009 we quoted AFL South Africa data showing 17,000 participants in Australian football in that country.  But at the time the body had just undergone major expansion to cover four provinces and was switching instead to a consolidation mode to ensure the program was sustainable.  Although completely understandable it was still probably not what international footy fans wanted to hear, always keen to see numbers growing rapidly.

It seems that 2012 was a period of expansion again with numbers up to 20,000.  And AFL South Africa National Participation Manager July Machethe (pictured) has told worldfootynews.com that the aim by 2016 is 30,000 participants.  Note that this includes the all-important umpires and school based mass participation programs.  Machethe has provided a breakdown of the 2012 numbers into different categories, as shown below.

Another area of interest is tracking senior footy and club development.  In terms of developing an adult footprint and really entrenching the game then long term that will be key.  We also saw back in 2009 how quickly players developed when exposed to regular football in Western Cape when a six team league was run and the province suddenly lept to national champion status.  Machethe comments on progress so far to establish more opportunities like that.

Further news is that Australian Anthony "Joel" Kelly, AFL South Africa's National Operations Manager for the last 5 years, has moved on with a replacement expected to be announced this month and quite likely to be a South Africa.

Ciaran Kilkenny has followed in the footsteps of fellow Irishman John Heslin (last year) in quitting the AFL just months after coming out from Ireland to join his club. Originally Kilkenny had been a little cat and mouse about whether he would join the Carlton Football Club until late last year when it was revealed he would be joining Hawthorn.

The Hawks took Kilkenny in the draft as an international rookie but it seems that after a very short time Kilkenny has made up his mind that he preferred to be at home in Ireland.

In his statement Kilkenny said "It may seem like a short time to spend in Australia but I have always given absolute commitment to any team in which I was involved and I feel it would be unfair on both Hawthorn and myself to continue in a situation where I am not 100% committed and happy in myself."

The last few months of 2012 had a flurry of good news for international footy such as Mike Pyke's success in the AFL Grand Final and confirmation that in 2013 New Zealand will host the first ever AFL match for premiership points to be staged outside of Australia.

Potentially lost in there was even more significant news.  Or if not "news", then certainly positive noises from the Australian Football League, that suggest their minds are slowly turning towards the possibility of an AFL club being based in New Zealand one day.  For many international footy supporters that would be a dream come true and surely go a long way to entrenching the game across the Tasman, opening the door to Australia one day playing a competitive international in Australian football.

The key comments were reported in several articles such as on Sportal on October 31st titled NZ team AFL's long-term goal, which obviously came about when the AFL's Gillon McLachlan was discussing the 2013 AFL match in Wellington.  Another key thing to note is that in an AFL re-structure McLachlan was recently given the title Deputy CEO, which has been widely interpreted as flagging him as the leading candidate to one day replace current AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou.  Thus McLachlan speaks as someone with a key role to play in the AFL's future (though ultimately the AFL Commission directs the overall vision).

After announcing in late 2012 that they would draft Kurt Heatherley as an international rookie at the end of 2012, AFL club Hawthorn this week have said they will also draft NZ international scholarship holder Shem Tatupu at the end of 2013. Both players would then be contracted to the club until the end of 2016.

Tatupu is currently training with the Hawks in Melbourne. He will continue to train with the club during school holidays for 2013 but will finiish his schooling in NZ, unlike Heatherley who has been at school in Melbourne the last two years.

AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan told hawthornfc.com.au "We congratulate Hawthorn on having the initiative to do it, to be the first club to move on this"

"When we introduced the South Pacific into the under-16s championships three years ago we could see there's going to be potential emerge, and these are the first two boys to come through."

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