World Footy News

Fiji, whom I thought performed very credibly at their inaugural International Cup in 2012, are now building on their start. AFL Fiji has begun building the national side for a likely friendly match against New Zealand later in the year.

AFL Fiji have commenced a weekly 9s club competition every Sunday at Albert Park in Suva in their bid to secure players to form a national side to take on the NZ Hawks.

AFL Fiji spokesperson Lupe Wolfgramm said they had two teams competing since last month.

With apologies to Australian 70’s sensation Skyhooks, current NZ captain Andrew Crighton has made his senior debut for the Balwyn Tigers in Division One of the very strong Melbourne metropolitan league, the Eastern Football League.

Andrew Crighton, 24, landed with the Tigers for pre-season after coming across the Tasman to improve his footy. He moved to Australia in November with the intent of lifting his game, lobbed at Balwyn Park for the first pre-season session and hasn\'t looked back. Crighton had achieved almost everything he could hope to in New Zealand.

Six years in the national team, the New Zealand Hawks, which he has captained since 2010, combined with a premiership in 2008 for home club North Shore in the Auckland league (http://www.aafl.co.nz) left little more to achieve.

 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. 

Only 6 games this week with byes for Adelaide, Brisbane, GWS, North Melbourne, West Coast and Western Bulldogs. 

2012 TOYOTA AFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 10 INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SCHEDULE Friday 8 June  – Monday 11 June.

 

The AFL has made a major commitment via expansion clubs Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants. Part of a long term plan they have drawn both criticism and support from within and outside of football circles. Few non AFL journalists though have focussed on the AFL more than the Sydney Morning Herald’s Roy Masters. However, in his latest attack on GWS he’s made a bit of a blue that is worth reviewing especially given some recent developments and stories around GWS.

USA Freedom are hosting an open training camp in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 15-17 . All players are welcome and there's a chance for the best players to earn a place on the national women's team for the 49th Parallel Cup on August 4-5. To reserve a place, contact Head Coach Leigh Barnes - freedomcoach@usafl.com and for more information, contact Team manager Amy Bishop - freedom@usafl.com.

 

Australian professional golfer Scott Hend recently joined the Jakarta Bintangs for footy training, some of that session can be seen in the video below.

AFL international development manager Tony Woods and St Kilda chief executive Michael Nettlefold have recently departed Wellington and it appears that there will be a wide-ranging deal between the AFL, St Kilda Football Club and Wellington City Council with finalising the games appearing a formality after several months of talks.

Both the AFL and Wellington officials have suggested they are hopeful of selling out the 34,500 seat stadium, which would be a landmark moment for the sport.

For more see:

AFL aims to sell out Anzac Game
Radio story
 

Results from last weekend's interstate matches between various state leagues.

The SANFL narrowly defeated the WAFL, the VFL smashed the Tasmanian State League and QLD/NT destroyed NSW/ACT.

Detailed result follow:

The AFL this week named the nine players to come from outside Australia to be part of the World 18 team. As in previous years the rest of the team will be made up of multicultural players living and playing footy in Australia.

In addition to the two American players featured previously on WFN, South Africa is represented by four players and one each from Indonesia, Denmark and Hong Kong.

 

 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 10 INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SCHEDULE Friday 1 June  – Sunday 3 June.

 

After two and a half seasons in the VFL, has Shae McNamara's time come? With the injury to Collingwood's Lachy Keefe last weekend adding to an already heavy injury list, McNamara has moved one spot closer to his AFL debut. The opponent this week is the winless Gold Coast which could make a soft landing for a debutant which could be in his favour.

But the Magpies are not likely to gift an AFL debut out of sympathy, so it would have to come on the back of them needing a tall defender, which is where McNamara has been spending time this year in the VFL. He is also competing for a spot against his VFL teammates in Ceglar, Witts and the Irishman Caolan Mooney who continues to advance in his adopted game.

While Collingwood has some injuries they also have some players on the way back from injury in Tarrant, Brown and Reid who all are some chance to return this week which would probably be coach Nathan Buckley's preference with the team already down on experience.  So all in all his chances are probably better than ever, but still slim at this stage.

The AFL helped facilitate the recruitment of Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau from the NRL for obvious promotional reasons. There was an obvious time and place opportunity with new sides in both Queensland and Sydney that made this move viable. The question has remained about what circumstances might deliver another cross code recruit.

Does the AFL need to stump up big money, or are there players out there seeking the challenge? NSW Waratah’s and Wallabies player Lachie Turner has made some interesting comments around a desire to one day play in the AFL.