World Footy News

On the 10th of March on Clapham Common, London, the Sussex Swans and some of the AFL London teams got together with London’s Kanga Footy touch players to compete in the Kanga Footy pre-season competition. Unlike normal football played in AFL London, Kanga Footy is 9-a-side, non-contact and the teams are required to have at least two female players on the field at any time. To further encourage the involvement of women in the game, the rules are modified so a goal kicked by a female full forward is awarded 9 points.

Eight teams took part in the competition: Two Kanga Footy “All Stars” and combined “Allied Forces” teams, the Sussex Swans, and five AFL London teams- Wandsworth Demons, Wimbledon Hawks, North London Lions, Putney Magpies and West London Wildcats. The games were two halves of 8 minutes, played on two ovals on the Common.

The Harmony Cup is back in 2012, with 8 teams representing Melbourne's multicultural communities competing this Sunday, March 18th.

This year's comp will see the return of regulars Israel, Turkey, Greece and Albania, along with first-timers Ireland. Rounding out the field will be composite sides representing Team Africa and Team Harmony, plus an Australian indigenous team. Each team will play three matches (2 x 20 minute halves) under the banner of their country of origin and in their full national colours.

Team Africa features players from countries including Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Africa, Botswana, Egypt and Kenya. Team Harmony will feature players from a number of backgrounds, including five members of New Zealand's 2011 International Cup side.

Albania will be captained by former Melbourne Demons star Adem Yze, while Mick Finn, who starred in the Irish side at the last two International Cups, will be captaining Ireland.

Organised by Aussie Rules International, the Cup will be held at Ransford & McAlister Ovals at Royal Park North, the same venue which hosted the bulk of the Melbourne leg of the 2011 International Cup. Entry is free, and the day will feature food, music and cultural performances besides the footy.

The two teams ranked first and second at the conclusion of the preliminary round of matches will play each other in the Grand Final. The winner will be awarded the 2012 Harmony Cup by footy Legend Ron Barassi.

More information and full schedule at harmonycup.com.

Australian Football in Scotland is following the trend towards "metro footy" leagues seen in other countries, i.e. having a main club in a city also break up into smaller sides for a local league, without taking away from the city competing in a wider competition.

The Glasgow sixes league had been running for a year now and is a great way of playing footy in a semi competitive environment. The format is simple, two teams compete in a six a side game on a shortened pitch.  This year will be slightly different in that with increased participation teams have bigger numbers and so where possible if a game can be played 9-a-side or even 12-a-side then that shall be the format. Lessons were learnt from last year and this year the league has been reduced to three teams to help make sure teams had enough numbers to play a game without borrowing players from another team too much.

 

A new US TV deal has been announced by the AFL (see announcement below). Fox Soccer Plus will now televise two live games per round, a highlights show and the finals after a deal could not be reached to continue with ESPN. The deal already appears unpopular with many regular viewers in the US who cannot access the subscription channel from their provider.  Streaming coverage will still be available on LiveSport.tv.   At this stage the fate is unkown of coverage on MHz Networks, which is available free in some areas. 

As always for more specific details on US and Canadian TV coverage please check out our friends at www.afana.com

It is clearly a hard road for the Irish rookies to make it in the AFL. In the past 12 months we have seen Jamie O'Reilly and Michael Quinn delisted after promising starts but failure to back up in year two, Setanta o'hAilpin delisted by Carlton, Tommy Walsh frustrated by lack of opportunity leave St Kilda and Richmond rookie John Heslin going home before preseason was even finished.

Of course there have been some positives too, particularly the form of Hanley and McKeever at Brisbane and Zac Tuohy at Carlton, and the return of Marty Clarke to Collingwood - but they will all admit it has been a hard road.

So it is a great disappointment and potentially a big setback over the weekend to Collingwood's Paul Cribbin who was hospitalised after an unprovoked attack at 2am. The club says he was under the influence of alcohol and will have a case to answer for that later on, let's hope this does not set his journey as an AFL hopeful back to any great degree.

The statement released by Collingwood on Sunday can be read below.

The AFL and Australia Post today announced 10 AFL players as this year’s Multicultural Ambassadors as part of the Australia Post Community Inclusion Partnership.
 
As Multicultural Ambassadors, Nic Natanui, Leigh Montagna, Bachar Houli, Joel Wilkinson, David Rodan, Harry O’Brien, Israel Folau, Karmichael Hunt, Majak Daw and Ahmed Saad represent some of the many diverse backgrounds in football and will encourage individuals and groups to unite through their love of the game.
 
Speaking at the launch today, AFL Chief Executive Officer Andrew Demetriou said the AFL was proud to partner with Australia Post, an organisation which also values the importance of connecting people and communities, including multicultural communities.
 

The Melbourne Football Club will today unveil an Irish-themed training guernsey, to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.  The players will train in the guernsey for the first time at Gosch’s Paddock, with the guernsey to feature an Irish green and white colour scheme and shamrock.
 
“Ireland forms a unique chapter in both our club’s heritage, but also the history of the game,” said CEO Cameron Schwab.  “Our home playing strip tells the story of our club, and through this jumper we have an opportunity to highlight and celebrate a unique part of our history.”

It’s Australia Week in PNG and there’s a big weekend coming up. The week runs from March 5 to March 11; however the big day for AFL PNG is Saturday with what is probably the biggest annual event on the AFL PNG calendar.

Saturday March 10 sees the action on field at Amini Park.

Since the AFL introduced the International Scholarship List in 2006, the take up by AFL clubs has been relatively subdued. There have been issues with visas. There have been some encouraging performances at 2nd or 3rd tier levels. Today Fairfax has reported that St Kilda is looking “align its new player academy with European soccer clubs and also become the first club to harvest overseas talent on a major scale”.

One of the key areas of the current era of Australian Football internationally is the provision of recognisable talent pathways. The Pacific/Oceania region in particular has access to the South Pacific and Oceania representative squads but also have an advantage of close proximity to Australia. A key benefit is seen with the recent arrival in Queensland of two players from the Solomon Islands (SIAFL) to gain experience playing in Australian competition. Thankfully too, the level of footy in Queensland is of sufficient quality that the lads won’t have to acclimatise to a Melbourne footy season.

The following article is a press release provided by Job Vulita (SI AFL Development Officer)

The prospect of the first AFL home-and-away game played outside Australia could become a reality as early as next season, with St Kilda reportedly pushing to play up to four games a season in New Zealand.

The Saints on their website confirm this possibility “The St Kilda Football Club is in preliminary discussions with the AFL about the expansion of the game in New Zealand and the role the Saints may play. With the recent inclusion of AFL as a sanctioned sport in schools in New Zealand, the Saints would like to develop the game further through engagement with the community. The Saints also see an opportunity to build player talent pathways for local talent to play AFL and potentially play games for Premiership points in Wellington in the future. The Wellington Stadium, affectionately known to Kiwis as “The Cake Tin” is an excellent venue.

Having personally had the opportunity to be involved in all 3 pre-season games played in Wellington, firstly at the iconic Basin Reserve and followed by two matches at the Stadium I can only applaud this initiative and state that in all respects it is a wonderful surface and arena for AFL football. It is well and truly time for a truly meaningful game to be played in New Zealand. The opportunity for the Saints to play the legendary football thinker Kevin Sheedy’s Greater Western Sydney Giants on Anzac Day should excite both footy fanatics and interested observers equally.