World Footy News

This little star from Burma has taken to Aussie rules like a duck to water. The story featured in the Geelong Adverstiser last month.

The World XVIII and South Pacific teams have arrived in Sydney over the past few days and completed training sessions and warm up matches.   The 2012 NAB AFL Under-16 Championships will commence in Sydney tomorrow, Saturday, July 7.

The seven-day carnival has been expanded to 12 teams with the inclusion of the AFL’s Indigenous Youth side, the Flying Boomerangs, and the Western Australia North-West team.

 Please note that these details are correct at the time of publishing. WFN accepts no responsibility for any changes to these times by broadcasters. Please check local guides or afl.com.au. 

2012 TOYOTA AFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 15 INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SCHEDULE Friday 6 July  – Sunday 8 July.

When Richmond drafted Piva Wright from the Dandenong Stingrays last season, they added an extra flavor to a broad multicultural melting pot of players at Tiger land. In recent days, Piva, along with the Tigers international rookie player Gideon Simon (PNG), attended the final session of a 10 week footy program that had been run by Richmond for 25 primary-aged children from the Fitzroy housing .

AFL Samoa has benefitted greatly over the last year from the presence of AYAD AFL development officer Gabel Stathis. Local footy and school programs have been reinvigorated. The AFL Samoa Committee (which includes people on the ground in Samoa as well as support from Australia) is advertising for the person to follow on from Gabel when his 12 month appointment expires.

Samoan Opportunity

Will McKenzie lives in Auckland, is a former President and General Manager of what is now AFL New Zealand, founded the International Australian Football Council and instigated the International Cup, which he still regularly attends.  In this article Will ponders the past, present and future of Australian football in New Zealand, with the inside knowledge of someone who has played a significant role in its recent history.

Being close to Australia, and with a long history in the game, many people look to New Zealand to see how football can develop outside Australia.  New Zealand football during the 1990s, a decade when I was heavily involved in the game, has been referred to from time to time on WFN including recently in a discussion thread which has prompted me to write to give a picture of New Zealand football in the 1990s from where I was standing, and some thoughts about current and future developments.  

Football of a predominantly Victorian variety was played in the colony of New Zealand from the late 1850s and was the only recognisable football code played in New Zealand until the first rugby match was played in 1870.  Despite rugby taking off like a scrub fire, football did reasonably well having clubs in most  parts of the colony by the turn of the 20th century when New Zealand declined an invitation to join the six other Australasian colonies in the forming of the Commonwealth of Australia.  New Zealand was a member of the 1905 and 1908 Australasian Football Councils, the equivalent of today’s AFL Commission, and the New Zealand team, wearing all black, competed in the 1908 Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of large crowds, getting well beaten by Victoria and Tasmania but defeating New South Wales and Queensland to finish fourth out of the seven state/colony teams.  World War I crippled the sport here (as it did rugby union in Australia) and football in New Zealand did not survive the depression.  The game was revived in 1974, leagues were formed in in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and a league now operates in Hamilton as well.

In late 1990, at the end of my time as a student at the University of Canterbury, and with an understanding of football having lived in Geelong during the 70s and played a bit at school I wrote to AFL Chairman and CEO Ross Oakley to suggest that the AFL consider playing a match in New Zealand as the first part of a long term plan to ‘repopularise’ the game in New Zealand.  Ross responded very positively.  As there was no suitable venue in Christchurch I scoured various maps of various cities and eventually settled upon Western Springs Stadium, Auckland, which is a speedway venue.  However it is possible to lay turf over a dirt track and the Auckland City Council kindly agreed to lay 10,000 square metres of turf to produce a 150m by 90m playing surface. 

Collingwood’s Caolan Mooney will make his debut on Saturday afternoon, against Fremantle at the MCG, after a breakthrough five goal performance in the VFL last weekend.

The 19 year-old Irishman, from Rostrevor, County Down, has played only 13 games of Australian  football but his speed and quick grasp of the code has seen him improve at a rapid rate in the mere months he has been with club.

After being signed during the 2010 season , Mooney was rookie listed as an international draftee last December and has now been elevated to the senior list to replace Lachie Keefe. Keefe has been placed on the long term injury list after suffering a serious knee injury in the match against Adelaide in round nine.

 Please note that these details are correct at the time of publishing. WFN accepts no responsibility for any changes to these times by broadcasters. Please check local guides or afl.com.au. 

2012 TOYOTA AFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 14 INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SCHEDULE Friday 29 June  – Sunday 1 July.

The AFL this week announced the full World18 squad adding the multicultural youths to the already named internationals that make up the 26-man squad.

The team will be coached by former St Kilda and Brisbane player Xavier Clarke. Clarke will benefit from the assistance of triple premiership former Brisbane player Chris Johnson who has been involved with the Under 16 championships the past two years.

The AFL have published a list of multicultural players currently on AFL lists (international scholarship list not included).  A total of 118 players from a multicultural background (i.e. having at least one parent born overseas) are among the 841 players on AFL lists in 2012.  Of those 118, twenty one were born overseas.  See the full list below.

The Australian Football League today launched the 2012 Toyota AFL Multicultural Round, a themed round to acknowledge and celebrate our game’s cultural diversity.

AFL General Manager National and International Development Andrew Dillon, AFL Legend Alex Jesaulenko, AFL Hall of Fame member Stephen Silvagni and AFL Multicultural Ambassador Nic Naitanui were in attendance.