World Footy News

Mid Canterbury Eagles have claimed back to back Premierships in the Canterbury AFL (in New Zealand's South Island) after ensuring the game was over by half time.

The Eagles opened up 21-point lead at the first break and by half time had extended their lead to 47-points, with the Christchurch Bulldogs failing to score in the second term.

The Bulldogs battled manfully and could rightfully use as an excuse the fact that four of their players were under 16 with a couple of 18-year olds new to the game. They sadly missed the bigger bodies of Todd Andrews, their absentee captain and young gun Craig Varcoe (collarbone), along with veteran Jason Beck who was nursing a strained calf. Unfortunately, they came up against a determined Eagles outfit that never took their foot off the accelerator to record a massive win.

Final Score: Mid-Canterbury Eagles 16.13 (109) def Christchurch Bulldogs 5.6 (36)
 

Following on from news that United States backetballer Eric Wallace was trialling with North Melbourne, the Roos have now announced that they have signed the 196cm, 102 kg African American as an international rookie.

North had made it clear he ticked most of the boxes already, they just wanted to check out his character and work ethic in the 10 day trial, and they were very pleased.  Improving his skills and game awareness will be the obvious issues, but so too will endurance.  The decision was reportedly very popular with his new team mates but first Wallace will return home to North Carolina for two weeks no doubt with a lot of organising to do as his life takes a sudden detour to Australia.

Wallace says he fell in love with the game watching Sydney win the premiership and "It really stuck with me when I went home and [I] wanted to be a part of it".  Team mates have reportedly dubbed the powerful athlete "The Beast" and "Big E".

Ironically his signing comes as Collingwood's American Shae McNamara returns home after ending his stint in Australia.

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The AFL's Saints might be headed for Wellington but up north Auckland has felt the power of another group of Saints.  The Mt Roskill Saints have triumphed over last year’s AAFL Premiers Waitakere Magpies in a close fought encounter for the 2012 title.

Waitakere had faced off against the perennial Auckland Grand Final team, University Blues, in the Preliminary Finals and knocked them out of the race. The Saints squad had been more consistent this year and this reliability, often absent from Saints sides in previous years, was to be to their benefit.
 
With a strong forward line capable of high marks and good kicks, mid-fielders fast and tough at the hard-ball gets, and a rock-solid back line that have simply been outstanding all year, things didn’t need to change at all for Mt Roskill in the Grand Final.
 

The 2012 AFL Oceania Cup in Fiji got underway with the matches proper on Friday after the warm up afforded via the lightning premiership played on Thursday.

With tropical cyclone Evan having smashed Samoa with minimal notice; at least the island nation of Fiji was able to bunker down - as it turned out, after Sundays rest day the AFL Oceania Cup squads and staff were laid low by the force of nature on Monday with scheduled matches postponed. By Tuesday, with debris cleared - the final round robin matches were completed to pave the way for the play-off matches and grand final.

Please note that all scores have now been updated from official sources - including the lightning carnival matches from Thursday.

Young Tyrese Bounghi, from Gordonvale State School in North Queensland, probably has to pinch himself every now and then. A week ago he was just another normal 12 year old boy going to school and playing footy.

But last Saturday he wore a football jumper donated by the Vietnam Swans Australian Rules Football Club based in Saigon. Now he is about to become the pride and joy of his home towns of Yarrabah and Gordonvale as a new face of international Aussie Rules football.

Last Saturday saw an International Day in Yarrabah, a small indigenous community east of Cairns, which was organised by local club Pyramid Power Junior AFL Club. At this event, kids from the community were asked to come down, have a kick and wear the donated jumpers from a number of international clubs. These included the Manchester Mosquitoes (England), Reading Kangaroos (England), Dublin Demons (Ireland), Orange County Bombers (California, USA), Baulkham Hills Hawks (Sydney, NSW) and the Vietnam Swans. Photos of the boys were sent around the world, and the shot of Tyrese was seen by the Swannies, prompting the club to request an interview with him to encourage a cultural exchange and further the “Brother Club” concept developed by Pyramid Power.

On behalf of World Footy News and followers of Australian Rules football world wide, our thoughts are with the people of Samoa who have just had their communities and homes devastated by Tropical Cyclone Evan.

We have seen the footage and our hearts go out to the people who have suffered loss at this time.

We also wish to extend our thoughts for the safety of those in Fiji, where the cyclone is said to be tracking now. Obviously the Oceania Cup would be disrupted, but that can be played another time. More importantly, we hope that this potential Category 5 cyclone can change course and spare Fiji the devastation being felt by those in Samoa.

The AFL Oceania Cup in Suva, Fiji is underway. Day 1 saw a lightning cup carnival format to warm up the sides in preparation for Fridays first round of cup matches.

The 2012 AFL Oceania Cup week of events kicks off on Thursday December 13th with a Lightning Carnival across the day; with matches commencing at 10am and wrapping up with a 3.30pm Grand Final followed by the presentations. Friday sees the main competition firing up – with ideally the travel cobwebs shaken off the day before. The official opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday 10am.

AFL Media Release

The AFL is pleased to announce Australia Post AFL Multicultural Ambassador Bachar Houli has been named an inaugural winner of the Award for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding.
 
In a partnership between the University of South Australia’s Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding and the Australia Day Council, the award was established to highlight the efforts of people around the nation who are contributing to social harmony and community cohesion.

As the first devout Muslim to play AFL, Richmond defender Bachar Houli has become a leading influence for many young Australian Muslims.
 
AFL National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud said Bachar Houli is committed to strengthening cultural awareness and has shown he is a great community leader.

afl.com.au is reporting that the United States' Eric Wallace is trialling with North Melbourne with the aim of being listed as an International Rookie. 

Wallace, who turns 24 on Thursday, started training on Monday with the Kangaroos after being one of 10 international athletes to attend and test at October's NAB AFL Draft Combine.

There he caught the eye of the Kangaroos with his athletic ability. The 196cm and 102kg product recorded an 80cm standing vertical jump (in the top 3 per cent of results) and ran 2.90 seconds in the 20m sprint.

It seems North will almost certainly list Wallace, with the club stating that they are already sold on his athleticism and just want to evaluate his character and whether he will fit in with the club's culture.

See North Melbourne hops on US bandwagon for more.

The 2012 Youth AFL Oceania Cup will commence this week and once again to be held in Suva, Fiji. As the AFL’s Andrew Cadzow (Development Manager for AFL Asia Pacific) welcome message states "The Oceania Cup will play a vital role in showcasing the many talented players in our great game and more importantly highlight the development and growth of football through Asia Pacific."

This is the fourth year of the tournament, but this year there have been some important structural changes. For the first time both PNG and New Zealand have been placed directly into the South Pacific Cup, whilst players from Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands will battle it out in the hope of being selected in the U16 Oceania Squad to then compete against PNG and NZ in the South Pacific Cup April of next year in Townsville.

On Saturday the Solomon Islands AFL representatives departed for Fiji to compete in the 2012 AFL Oceania Cup. 9 young footballers plus AFL Solomons Job Vulita, with the support of key sponsor QBE Insurance (Head office in Honiara) the Solomon Sharks have been able to expand their representation this year after the success last year of Jave Sarere and Francis Ramo when they competed in an AFL combined team.

This year, the Solomons players will play for the “Solomons All Stars” in the Oceania Cup in Suva against teams from Tonga, Nauru, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The below is courtesy of the SIAFL :