World Footy News

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 :

Australian Rugby League fans already know Innisfail, in North Queensland, as the home of two test match internationals. Ask anyone remotely connected to Australia’s “other” football code and they will tell you that Innisfail is where North Queensland Cowboy’s star Ty Williams was born, along with Melbourne Storm’s Billy Slater, argued by many to be one of the game’s greatest full backs.

Innisfail has not been seen as a hotbed of talent for Australian Rules footballers.

Until now.

AFL Cairns Juniors have invested a great deal of time in recent months developing a junior Australian Rules football team in this beautiful town, located in the picturesque Johnston River Valley, 90 kilometres south of Cairns. Eddie, Tim, Baden and the crew from this organisation have been training Innisfail kids, as well as others in nearby Tully and Mission Beach, to produce the next wave of Aussie Rules stars.

The work they have done with local primary schools to get kids involved in our great game may see the next Billy Slater wearing a Gold Coast Suns or Brisbane Lions jumper rather than that of a Rugby League team.

The Victorian Amateur Football Association continued its unbeaten record against the New Zealand Hawks with two wins over the Under 18’s in Wellington. The VAFA is in its third year of sending an U18 invitational side to New Zealand to play matches against an U18 AFL NZ representative side.

This year saw an age shift for the NZ Hawks with the team previously fielding Under 20 teams against their competitors. With the upper limit now U18 new challenges were faced with a large gap in experience between the sides contributing to the result.

The loss of Hawthorn Scholarship players Shem Tatupu and Rhys Panui-Leth before the weekend was a blow but this also provided new talent with opportunities.
 

From International Scholarship Holder to an International Rookie at Hawthorn by the end of next season, the journey continues for NZ’s Kurt Heatherley.

He signed on an International Scholarship at the end of 2009 so the progress has been about carefully developing his football nous and skills to match his athletic capacity which saw him test extremely well at this year’s AFL Draft Camps. At 192cm, and weighing 83kg the teenager came second in the 20m sprint with a time of 2.84 seconds.

The 17-year-old will join the club in a near full-time capacity in 2013, training alongside his future Hawks teammates at Waverley while playing with the Sandringham Dragons in the TAC Cup.

Hawthorn head of coaching and development Chris Fagan described Heatherley as a “real competitor” with a great attitude. “He’ll do a full year of training with us this year, which is pretty exciting,” Fagan said. “We’ll be focussing on improving his kicking and his game sense.

So good has been his development since taking up football after being spotted by the Hawks as a 14-year-old, experts consider him a likely top 20 NAB AFL Draft pick if we was in the draft pool.

Kurt is not the only International Scholarship holder at the Hawks - fellow Kiwis Shem Tatupu and Ben Miller are also listed by the AFL club.