World Footy News

As the 4th AFL International Cup slips away to now being several months ago we thought it time to chat to the AFL International Development Manager Tony Woods about how he thought the tournament played out, ranging from questions on media, the women's division and staging it across two cities, to his own personal highlights of the experience.

WFN:  Overall I assume you were pretty happy with IC11.  A record 18 men's teams including 3 new ones (Tonga, Fiji and France) and only 3 countries that have attended in the past were not there (Samoa, Finland and Spain), which given the status of international footy is a very good return rate.  And of course the inaugural Women's Division with 4 nations and the Australian indigenous and multicultural (AIM) team.  Particularly pleasing must've been having all the committed nations turn up... no late withdrawals or no shows in 2011.

One of the clear disappointments in the vibrant Pacific region for Australian Football was the non-appearance of Samoa at both the 2011 International Cup and the recent Youth Tournament in Fiji.

Here is an update on AFL Samoa. AFL Samoa has a newly re-formed and restructured board and committee. Across three days in late November they were pleased to host a visit from AFL Asia Pacific Manager of Football Operations, Andrew Cadzow. Andrew was in Samoa to among other things to convene the first ever AFL Samoa Coaching and Umpiring AFL Level 1 Accreditation workshop. Outside of that, Andrew also took time to run some skills clinics.

The AFL Youth Oceania Cup tournament wrapped up last weekend.  Like 2010 in Tonga, an important element of the week was the AFL Combine testing conducted.  This time around, on the Saturday of the tournament, 40 selected players were tested.

Last week’s Rookie draft saw the listing of two Irishmen. But also we saw some others with exotic heritage listed with AFL clubs, such as Tasmanian born Gold Coast recruit Aaron Hall’s whose mother is Fijian.

Richmond are putting together a highly varied multicultural mix.  Joining their Irish recruit John Heslin (and PNG scholarship listed players) are Ben Darrou whose father was born in Morrocco and Samoan Piva Wright (see Youtube video of Piva on TAC future stars below).

The ladies from Champagne Football interview some of the internationals at the IC11 closing Gala Event in Melbourne.

Follow the adventures of the Irish Australian Rules Football teams in Australia for the AFL International Cup 2011.  This youtube slideshow created by Irish blogger Peter Ross follows the Irish teams' time in Australia from the opening ceremony to their post game Grand Final celebrations in the MCG.  Peter's wife, Melbourne born and bred Dr. Tammy Verlaan-Ross was the team Chiropractor. 

Her participation was supported by the Chiropractic Association of Ireland, the official healthcare provider of the Irish team. Ireland's men (the Warriors) defeated reigning champions Papua New Guinea to win the Cup for the second time in their history and the women (the Banshees) also won, defeating Canada in the first ever women's Grand Final. 

Like a number of other fledgling AFL national programs, the AFL Vanuatu program runs a facebook page. And today a pretty special review was posted of the efforts and experience of the Volcanoes in becoming the first national AFL team from Vanuatu.

Read the full article here.

With the pre-tournament favourite and reigning title holder PNG prevented from defending their title after what was a shock loss to Tonga in the downpour of Thursday afternoon; the New Zealand Hawks more accurate finishing provided them a solid 21 pt win over Nauru in the Grand Final of the AFL Youth Oceania Cup.