World Footy News

We recently reported that Ireland's Michael Finn had achieved a remarkable series of successes in 2011, winning the International Cup with his country, again making the World Team named from the tournament, and taking home the Frank Rosbrook Medal for the best & fairest player in Division 1 in Victoria's Northern Football League, playing for Heidelberg.

Just to add another accolade to round out the year Finn has comfortably won Heidelberg's best and fairest, polling 121 votes with the runner up Josh Houlihan getting 72 votes.

Every bit as important amongst the personal awards was winning the his club's MVP as voted by his teammates, an award that aims to recognise the club's most valuable player in the eyes of the playing group.

worldfootynews.com spoke with Finn and started by asking about the difficulties of juggling club and country commitments.
 

The AFL had a number of its deadlines today, Tuesday November 29, in regard to the rules relating to club lists.  The deadline for all categories was 2pm today.

Unfortunately there are no surprises this year with international recruits from out of the blue.  From an  international perspective we take particular interest in the following two list deadline categories.

Unlike most AFL drafts where all the talk is about who will get the best young talent and who will go at number 1, this year with GWS Giants holding all the aces much of the focus was on whether ex-Carlton Irish-Fijian-Australian Setanta O'hAilpin would find a new home.  Reportedly a cheer went around the room when GWS took Setanta at pick 79.

The media was quick to interview the passionate player, who at 199cm and 98kg is expected to help "protect" the young players in the Giants' first AFL season.  It also seems that some are just discovering that this particular Irishman was actually born in Bankstown, near the Giants' heartland.

For some of the many articles about his move to GWS, see GWS draftee Setanta O'hAilpin confesses West Sydney origins (not sure why it's a "confession"), O'hAilpin over the Blues and ready to be a Giant among boys and Giants pick 'big leprechaun' Setanta O'hAilpin.

Currently on 80 AFL games, hopefully the move to New South Wales will give Setanta the opportunity to become what we think would be the 4th "Irish experiment" player to play 100 VFL/AFL games, after Jim Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly and Sean Wight, noting of course the late Sean Wight's Scottish heritage and O'hAilpin's Australian birth.  Of course other Irishmen have played senior footy across Australia, but would not be considered part of the "Irish experiment" in which VFL/AFL clubs actively recruited them from Gaelic football or hurling in Ireland.

AFL Vanuatu is still young, but, the demands are increasing. Fund raising is well underway to help send the national U/16 team to Fiji next month (December) for the annual AFL Oceania tournament.  Domestically, the AFL Vanuatu season is nearing an end, with the Grand Final scheduled for December.

The 2011 AFL draft will take place this morning in Sydney.  With the GWS Giants having the ability to take what it considers the best talent in the draft early on, it is expected to be their later picks that Irishman Setanta o'hAilpin will be sweating on.

GWS coach Kevin Sheedy has admitted in the press over the past few weeks his own interest in giving him another chance, and if they can fit him in the salary cap are expected to draft o'hAilpin are likely to add him to their list.

Sheedy hopes to tap into the Irish community in Sydney but Setanta's Fijian heritage may be more relevant in the Western Sydney suburbs.

The audio below is an interview that Setanta did with SEN Radio in Melbourne last week.

This Sunday, the Manchester Mozzies Aussie Rules Club will host the Nathan Blakey Movember Cup. Named in honour of a former high flying Mozzie who tragically passed away last week, the Movember Cup will see teams from Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Leeds compete in a 4 team lightning cup tournament.

In conjunction with the Movember Foundation, members of all 4 teams have spent the last 3 weeks grooming and styling some killer Moustaches as part of the worldwide Movember movement, in which men give up their upper lip during the month of November to help raise much needed funds and awareness for men's health, particularly men's cancer.

The Wolverhampton Wolverines recently completed their debut AFL Britain Central & North West season, and although they had a tough year and didn't manage a win in the home and away season, they were successful in growing their very young playing list to more than 30 members, only one of whom is an Australian.

Towards the end of the season the Wolverines also became involved with a charity that had been set up locally; Balls To Cancer. The charity was established by Mark Bates, who has since worked tirelessly for the cause of raising funds and awareness to the dangers of male cancers, predominantly testicular and prostate cancer.

Around ten members of the squad completed a 5km fun run for the charity and a further four players had some shots taken for a calendar that the charity will be bringing out in time for 2012. It is hoped that 2012's West Midlands Charity Cup will be bigger and better than last year and that all proceeds will benefit Balls To Cancer.

It has taken 21 years – but the Osaka Dingoes have secured their first Japan AFL Premiership, overpowering the Eastern Hawks by 22 points.

The teams had met in Osaka in the regular season, with the Minor Premiers, the Dingoes running out winners 78 to 42 winners

The start of the Grand Final went Osaka's way. The Dingoes scored early in the First Quarter, courtesy of D. Moon, who ended up with six goals for the match. By Half Time their lead was 21 points, and the match looked over. In the Third Quarter, the Hawks managed to claw their way back into the game and at Three Quarter Time, Osaka's margin had been narrowed to 7 points, and momentum was with the Hawks. Osaka must have been given a rev-up at the final break, as they kept the Hawks scoreless in the final quarter, whilst adding two more goals to their tally.

A new footy club has been born in the town of Cergy-Pontoise in France. Located in the French department of Val d'Oise, about thirty miles north west of Paris, Les Coyotes de Cergy-Pontoise are awaiting you for training every Sunday at 10 am in Parc des Larris de Cergy.

Composed of a small group (for now), they hope the team will evolve, compete and reinforce the next season of the French league, which for its 2011-12 season will include 7 clubs: Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Perpignan, Toulouse, Aix-Marseille and Montpellier.

For more information, visit the official facebook page here.

Over the last 7 years Australian football's international growth has prospered from the active support of the AFL Game Development department overseen by David Matthews, with his title ultimately expanding to be General Manager of National and International Development.  Matthews has been genuinely enthusiastic about supporting the game beyond Australia and at the same time built an excellent reputation within the AFL.

Unfortunately Matthews has now moved on.  The AFL has made a huge investment in the new club GWS Giants and the sudden departure of their CEO was far from optimal, so the AFL posted Matthews to act in the role.  It has now been confirmed that he will move into that position for at least 12 months.

The loss for the international movement is lessened due to Game Development now featuring a dedicated international manager in Tony Woods, but it remains important that the top position be filled with someone keen to continue Matthews' good work.  We'll watch with interest to see who wins the job.

In the meantime many thanks to David Matthews for all his great work including his openness to interviews with this website and we wish him good luck in the new role.  And it will be very interesting to see if the GWS Giants embrace international development given its coach Kevin Sheedy is the most enthusiastic coach on this front and now they have the most internationally aware CEO.  Perhaps international football's loss will be international football's gain.

The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS have welcomed the announcement of the AFL’s radio broadcast partners for 2012-16.

Acting GIANTS Chief Executive David Matthews said the club was particularly delighted that ABC Radio had agreed to broadcast all of the GIANTS home and away matches into New South Wales during the period of the broadcast agreement.

Read on for more at the end of the article about ABC Radio Australia broadcasts. 

After an absence of a few years, there are signs that Australian rules football will again be played on an organised basis in Belgium. Long-time followers of footy in Europe will remember the Brussels Saints, who put some strong sides on the field around 2005-06 and had some success in tournament play (see Brussels Saints March into 2005 for some history). However, the Saints went into recess after only a few seasons, and since that time there hasn't been an active club in the country.

Local Bjorn de Bruyn and Aussie expat Brendan Stead are currently holding training sessions and hoping to create a club in the city of Antwerp, while another new group are kicking the footy in the capital city Brussels.