World Footy News

The pay dispute between the AFL, the AFL players and the AFL Players' Association (AFLPA) has now continued past the AFL's latest deadline.  Anyone interested in the saga will have followed it in other media but there is one particularly relevant point to supporters of international footy.

The AFL and AFL clubs are not-for-profit organisations.  They do not build up large profits and divide it amongst shareholders or club owners.  The primary areas money is directed is to paying the players, running the clubs, running the League, and Game Development.  Any one area extracting a bigger share of the pie means squeezing one of the other areas.

The AFLPA has sought a significant increase and, eventually, the AFL has offered a major increase including better retirement payments and better conditions for rookies, on top of the overall pay rises.  The AFLPA has knocked it back again.

The AFL has already said that they are now squeezing the clubs and threatening other areas.  The connection that concerns in particular is Game Development.  It's this author's belief that significant improvements in international support are dependent on the Game Development department continuing to expand.  When the AFLPA has said it is not a war between them and the clubs, there are other areas, then surely they mean Game Development.

In my opinion the current standoff threatens some of the good work done across Australia and internationally in the last decade and could severely damage what might be to come.

Injury to 2006 number one draft pick Bryce Gibbs has opened the door for Zach Tuohy to be recalled to the Carlton side for today's semi final against the West Coast Eagles in Perth. It is a huge compliment to his footy development after first playing the game in 2010 with the Northern Bullants, including playing in a losing grand final. After 10 AFL games this season with the Blues, last week he was emergency for the Blues before playing with the Bullants when he was not required. 

This week he re-joins countryman Setanta o'hAilpin who has settled back into the Blues side after an injury interupted season.  Returning some weeks ago from a hand injury that kept him out for many weeks, he had to come through the Northern Bullants VFL team.  While looking good as a goal scoring option up forward he has also been required to help out in the ruck position.  His versatility is being used to patch holes which is vital to the Blues who have had a number of injuries but makes settling into a set position difficult for him. 

Across the first weekend of September, the Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Mr Richard Marles, was in the Solomon Islands. The Australian High Commission in Honiara released a press release last week stating that Marles met with young Solomon Islands (AFL) footy players, coaches and members of the SIAFL committee. By itself, this is nice, but, on the basis of a gradual build up, Richard Marles in the Solomons is a sign of a growing interest in footy from Australian political circles.

The Norway Trolls and Iceland Ravens met for the first time last weekend, with the Trolls coming out 33-point winners. The home team Ravens put up a fair fight, only being 3 point down at half time, before the Trolls pulled away to win 9.7 (61) to 4.4 (28).

Best on ground was René Damborg Jensen for Norway, who recently returned from competing with the Denmark Vikings at the IC11 in Australia. Runners-up were the Icelandic duo of Magnús Þórarinsson and Viðar Kristinsson, with Norway's Kurt Jensen topping the scoring with 2.5 for the match.

The 16-a-side friendly was a warm up for the Euro Cup in Belfast, as well as the first test match held in Iceland, and was umpired by AFL Europe GM Ben MacCormack.

Icelandic footy stalwart and IceAFL president Friðgeir "Fritz" Ásgeirsson told WFN that the greater experience of the Norwegian team proved the difference on the day, saying "as this was a friendly match, there were no restrictions on the numbers of Australians in the teams so Norway fielded 9 or 10 Australians, while Iceland doesn't really have any. The closest we have is Leifur Bjarnason whose mother is Australian. He did learn the sport in Australia though and is clearly one of Iceland's best players."

Fritz also managed to score the first goal in the match, as he did against Denmark at the 2010 European Championships, earning the honour of being first goalkicker in both Iceland's first home and also first away test matches.

More photos and reports are available via the Oslo Crows website.

The Russian national team will make its inaugural Australian rules football appearance at the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast next month, along with at least 14 other European nations who will return after previous Cup campaigns.

Besides the Russian Czars, AFL Europe General Manager Ben MacCormack told WFN that Norway, Portugal and Poland are also hoping to make their Euro Cup debut this year, with the full list of competing sides to be released in the near future.

In the meantime, anyone interested in seeing a little more about the nascent Russian footy scene can check out this video on the ABC website.

It's that time of the year, the sides that have dropped out of contention begin the early announcement of list changes. Unfortunately for PNG's Donald Barry, he is amongst a handful of Brisbane Lions who are being 'moved on'.

The AFL website reports that senior listed players Matt Austin and Xavier Clarke, and rookie listed players Broc McCauley, Bart McCulloch and Donald Barry have all been shown the door.

Barry played 15 games in season 2011 for the Brisbane Lions in the NEAFL.  Alas, the Lions finished last in the Northern Conference.   His 2010 season was cut short by injury.

A particular disappointment is that Barry missed PNG's IC11 campaign to continue playing with Brisbane, only to be de-listed a few weeks later.

Broc McCauley appears a surprise ommission, standing 202 cm and having managed 3 games earlier in the season where he seemingly impressed a few onlookers, although at 24 years of age, he isn't a 'young' rookie.

The International and Passionate Game  

This is the first of two articles on themes in IC11. It takes up the subject of the diversity suggested by the word ‘international’ in our global world and the way in which footy differs from soccer and other sports in its capacity to transcend individualism. If journalism is ‘history’s first draft’, this is in between… a brief reflection.

An article ‘Behind the International Cup Two… The Volunteers and The Lighter Side’ will follow later.

The International Game

There are even more stories in international footy than there are in the big city. The Cup IS very international, as it reflects the way people move in the global world.

Stateside Footy presents more of the 2011 Boston Demons "Zaidee's Rainbow" Metro Competition. This episode features a "Metro-style" modified Australian Rules Football match played on August 16, 2011 in Woburn, MA. This match is between the River Rats and the Lobstermen. Stateside Footy is a cable access TV show produced with the assistance of WCTV - Wilmington Community Television in Wilmington, MA. It features Aussie Rules Football as it is played in the U.S.A.

Stateside Footy presents a two-part Aussie Rules extravaganza. The show begins with a game from the 2011 Boston Demons Metro Competition, played on July 23 2011 in Woburn, MA. This match features a Mixed Metro modified Australian Rules Football match featuring players from both the Boston Demons and the Boston Lady Demons.

The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) Premier Division is the top level of senior women’s football in Australia, and has been in existence since 1981. The Premier Division Grand Final was on August 27th, unfortunately clashing with the Men’s Division 1 Grand Final of the International Cup.

Whilst Ireland made history at the MCG, across town at Coburg City Oval, football history was also being made as VU St Albans Spurs broke the Darebin Falcons’ undefeated premierships record of 5 years to become the new WVFL champions, winning 16.6(102) to 3.5(23).

The day started with the Grand Final of the VWFL Premier Reserves Division between the reserves teams fielded by the same two clubs, Darebin and VU St Albans, but proved not to be prophetic with Darebin Falcons winning 6.12(48) to 3.4(22). After this spectacular curtain raiser, the main event, the VWFL Premiers Division Grand Final, was started by Western Bulldogs’ board member Sue Alberti, after whom the Premiership cup is named, who tossed the coin.

The massive crowd also included other AFL identities, including Cameron Schwab, David Nietz, Chris Connolly and Karen Hayes from Melbourne Football Club, AFL Club sponsor of the VWFL, and the game was also filmed by The Local Footy Show. There was also coverage of the game on Chanel 10 and ABC News.

With the 2011 AFL International Cup still fresh in our minds this author has reviewed each of the 23 competing teams, offering some brief personal thoughts on how each side went relative to expectations.

The article also summarises the finishing position and seeding of each nation, and compared it with the worldfootynews.com staff consolidated prediction (votes of the authors) published just prior to the tournament.

On August 26th the Women's and Men's Division 2 International Cup competitions wrapped up with victories to Ireland's women (over Canada) and Fiji's men (over France).  Both nations then received their trophies in front of the gathered crowd at Ransford Oval in Melbourne.  Here's a few more pictures from the afternoon's celebrations.