World Footy News

Around 2000 spectators enjoyed the sun and action at Amini Park in Port Moresby for the 2012 season decider that matched the Moore Printing University Tigers against the Remington Gordon Kokofas. The BSP - Bank South Pacific - season reached a fitting climax with a hard faught Grand Final in warm sunny conditions.

Stephen Alomes, who fits in being a writer, broadcaster, painter and Adjunct Professor in the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT University when he's not writing for World Footy News, has released a book many years in the making.

It captures his passion for Australian culture and its place in the context of globalism, specifically focusing on Australian Football.  Having been a regular at International Cups and writer for WFN, it's no surprise the book includes consideration of international footy.  The result is: Australian Fooball - The People's Game 1958-2058

It embraces the future, towards the 2058 bicentenary of the game, as well as exploring recent changes over the last 50 years.  In the preface Kevin Sheedy sees a future AFL match featuriing Los Angeles and London ("the Los Angeles Coyotes play the London Wolves for four points"), and David Parkin also enthuses about the book.
 
‘If you love Australian football, its past, its present and its future, then you have to read this book’ (Kevin Sheedy).

‘A book for generations of Aussie football lovers ... a great read for the real football addict' (ex Carlton coach David Parkin)

Available from Walla Walla Press.

This saturday sees Port Moresby hosting the 'big one' with the 2012 Grand Final of the AFLPOM. Amini Park will be a hive of activity all day with the junior Grand Final first bounce at 9 am.

The Senior Grand Final is set for a 1.30 pm start and sees the Remington Gordon's Kokofas take on the Moore Printing Uni Tigers. The match is the culmination of a competitive season with some of the stars of AFL PNG on show - including a number of players quite familiar to WFN regulars. The standard is sure to be high with the Tigers having had the week off while the Kokofas will take great confidence from their finals campaign thus far.

With David Rodan delisted from Port Power and the 29 year old's career in limbo with the hope of perhaps returning to original club Richmond – the competition that previously had carried his name in Fiji was recently held.

The ‘David Rodan Cup’ has from last year become the ‘Fiji Day Cup’. The first DRC was first held in 2009. The 2012 installment was held Wednesday last week (Oct 10). A key outcome of the day was the establishment of a 40-strong training squad of Under 15s (previously under 16s) for the 2012 AFL inter-Pacific Island tournament later this year. The invitation has been put out for an AFL-qualified coach to guide the enthusiastic youngsters.

The Australian Football League has reported impressive participation growth in 2012, with 6.81% across all forms of the game in Australia and 10% internationally.  That brings total numbers nationally to 844,799 and 110,292 internationally.

AFL General Manager - National and International Development and General Counsel, Andrew Dillon, said “As interest in the game continues to grow internationally we’ve again seen an increase in those people playing the game outside of Australia with the strongest participation numbers coming from countries such as South Africa, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.”

The following information from the AFL delves deeper into the Australian figures.  We hope to get a more detailed breakdown of the international numbers later in the year.

 

Dallas Magpies are the US Division 1 Champs with final scores being  Dallas Magpies 3.4.22, New York Magpies 3.2.20.

Earlier in the day Nashville defeated Orange County leaving the door open for the winner of New York vs Denver to sneak through on percentage.  Dallas made it through to the final defeating Calgary by just four points.  New York did win by just two points to make it to the final but lost in a nail biter to the Dallas team in the final as New York stormed home with the aid of a stiff breeze with 3.2  in the second half to just one point for Dallas.

In Division II Minnesota Freeze 1.6.12 defeated the Los Angeles Dragons 0.3.3.

The Orange County Bombers emerged as National Championship contenders today in Mason Ohio as they defeated former champions New York and Denver.  Should they defeat the winless Nashville tomorrow morning they will play off for their first  Division I title at the end of the day.  In the other pool in Division I Dallas and cross border raiders Calgary will meet at midday to battle for their place in the final.  Calgary had the biggest Division I win for the day keeping the Golden Gate Roos scoreless and winning by 74 points.

Minnesota, LA Dragons and Boston all fared well in Divison II, with Boston escaping with a one point win over the San Diego Lions.  In Division III Chicago, Columbus and Atlanta were all undefeated with the winner looking to come from those three.  In Division IV Houston, Des Moines and Milwaukee are all undefeated going into Day 2.

In the Women's Division Denver were the stand out team and are favourites to take out the title again this year.

Scores from Day 1 matches below.

The tenth annual Bali Nines has taken place on 6 October 2012, being hosted by the Bali Geckos, a mostly expat playing group based in Seminyak. The original tournament was played in 2003, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Bali Bombings, in which 202 people died, including 88 Australians.

The tournament consisted of seven teams, vying for the coveted title, with teams from around Indonesia, from Australia and around Asia.
 

The success of the Irish at Euro Cup 2012 somewhat overshadowed one of Europe’s most successful debutants: the Norwegian team, who brought home the competition’s other prize - the Euro Plate.

In the Plate final, held as a curtain raiser to the grand final where Ireland defeated Denmark by one point, Norway eased past Iceland to win by 6.5 (41) to 1.3 (9) and bring home the second division prize.

Australian Football only started in Norway four years ago, with a mostly Aussie expat friendly between Oslo and Karlstad, which was then expanded into an 18-a-side friendly against the Swedish team. On the back of this, teams started to developed in Ås and Oslo and by late 2009, popularity started to develop amongst the locals.

“We found it was really enjoyable and rewarding to find Norwegians who had perhaps always been looking for a sport containing all the ingredients that Australian football contains,” admits David Stone, one of the Norwegian coaches. “We got better at getting them up to speed quickly, and every now and then you would see someone who just instantly loved the game.”
 

A couple of days back the story of Patty Ndongo from Cameroon via Frankston in the VFL was told. One of his team mates is Khan Haretuku, who, whilst Australian born (to New Zealand parents), was raised in Sydney (in Mascot) and as Eddie McGuire has attested in the past – Sydney to Melbourne is not just another city, it’s another country.

Today (Saturday) sees Khan make the trek to Etihad stadium for the AFL State Combine testing. Khan is one of 7 VFL players amongst the 74 invited to attend. Haretuku is the only key forward amongst the 7 VFL players and is hopeful of re-igniting his AFL journey.

The rise and success of Canadian Mike Pyke for the Sydney Swans has now been well documented.  An article that got solid coverage in Canada had a headline that he lead the Swans to victory in the AFL grand final and that attracted some criticism in one particular online news site.  However that's a fairly narrow semantic arguement.  Although he didn't dominate the match, there's no doubt that ruck is a key position and to play well when left with no backup in the final quarter of a suffocatingly tight grand final means by my personal definition he certainly was one of the players who lead the Bloods home.

So his brief career has reached a high point.  But there may now be a nasty epilogue to season 2012.  When all players in Sydney's squad are fit and firing, the 28 year old Pyke is clearly the Swans' number two ruckman.  Many clubs now only play one ruckman, but coach John Longmire chose to play his 200cm Rugby convert as a big target in the forward line and then relieving in the ruck.  He kicked 8 goals in 18 games this year and indeed provided a solid target to bring the ball to ground, occasionally also pulling in a strong mark, as well as leading the ruck on occasions.

However, the Swans have made a big play for enigmatic Adelaide forward/ruckman Kurt Tippett and are now in pole position to obtain the 25 year old.  That could put Pyke in a very tough spot.