World Footy News

The AFL Sweden and Williamstown Football Club today announced that Williamstown will host the Swedish Elks during the International Cup 2011 in August.

The hosting partnership will entail joint training sessions, access to training facilities, experience exchange sessions and a farewell get together. Exact dates of the events are still under discussion due to the participation of Williamstown in the Foxtel Cup final, but both parties are excited about the opportunity.

"We are proud to have Williamstown Football Club as our host club who is one of the oldest footy clubs and shares the same colours," says AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis. Head coach of the Elks Daniel McClaer continues, "The possibility of joint training sessions with the Williamstown squad would be a great opportunity for our players to see how footy really is trained and played."

Football & Development Manager Chris Dixon at Williamstown FC explains “We were very keen to be apart of such a great event in the International Cup and it’s great to be able to help out an International Side in Sweden. We’re looking forward to assisting where possible and helping the Swedish Elks as they strive for International Glory.”

Essendon player Andrew Welsh will make his big screen debut at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, featuring in the arthouse film Falling for Sahara premiering this Friday.   Directed by Khoa Do, Falling for Sahara follows the lives of three young African refugees living in Melbourne’s inner-west, who share a passion for Australian Rules football.

An initiative of the Bill Hutchison Foundation and supported by the Essendon Football Club, Falling for Sahara aims to highlight the migration challenges faced by youth from multicultural backgrounds.  The romantic drama features a cast of African-Australian actors and newly arrived refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia and reflects the role sport can play in promoting social cohesion in the community.

The 2011 International Cup will feature a women's division for the first time ever.  Five teams will fight for the inaugural Women's trophy.  We begin our previews with Canada.

Women’s football in Canada has come a long way since the first women’s team was formed back in 2007 in preparation for the Northern Light’s first ever international against the USA Freedom. They lost that match, but didn’t lose the desire to continue the push to expand female football across Canada. With momentum on the back of their surprise victory over their American rivals in the 2010 49th Parallel Cup, the Northern Lights are coming over to Australia with the intention of dazzling opposition and fans alike.

Nauru were perhaps the biggest surprises at IC08. With footy in disarray in the tiny nation for several years before the tournament, not much was expected. But after an opening round loss to eventual winners PNG the Chiefs didn't lose another game, finishing 5th overall.

This time around other teams will know what to expect but Nauru should still perform very well and would be looking to break into the semi finals. 2008 coach Wes Illig moves into an assistant role as the Bendigo Bombers' football manager (VFL) Graham Pratt takes the reigns.

We'll also get our first look at senior level of GWS Giants scholarship player Yoshi Harris. Overall the team lacks some height with the average at 174 cm (5'9") and no one over 182 cm (6 foot), which surely spells trouble in ruck, but the age profile shows a good mix of experience and youth, with an average of about 24 years.

The AFL today announced it had finalised the fixture for round 24 of the 2011 Toyota AFL Premiership season, which had been left as a floating round when the fixture was announced late last year.

The schedule of games will be as follows (local time in each case):

Friday September 2

Collingwood v Geelong Cats at the MCG, 7.40pm (Channel 7)

 Saturday September 3

Gold Coast Suns v Hawthorn at Metricon Stadium, 1.10pm (Fox Sports)

Western Bulldogs v Fremantle at Etihad Stadium, 2.10pm (Network Ten)

Sydney Swans v Brisbane Lions at the SCG, 4.10pm (Fox Sports)

Carlton v St Kilda at the MCG, 7.10pm (Network Ten)

West Coast v Adelaide Crows at Patersons Stadium, 5.10pm (Fox Sports)

Sunday September 4

Port Adelaide v Melbourne at Adelaide Oval, 2.40pm (Channel 7)

Richmond v North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, 4.40pm (Fox Sports)

AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou has congratulated Cadel Evans on creating sporting history by becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France. “On behalf of the AFL, I want to pass on my congratulations to Cadel on a magnificent achievement which ranks right up there with some of Australia’s finest sporting moments,” Mr Demetriou said.

Mr Demetriou has spoken to Victoria Premier Ted Baillieu and the AFL will invite Cadel Evans to participate in the celebrations for the 2011 Toyota AFL Grand Final so all football fans can acknowledge his achievement.

“I know Cadel is a keen Geelong supporter and has strong relationship with the club and we’d love to honour him in the appropriate way during the AFL’s biggest week of the year,” Mr Demetriou said.

Of course an Australian winning the epic European cycling race may have been seen in the past as impossible or unlikely. Just as many would today see Europeans learning Aussie rules in Europe ever becoming champions of our game here. Never say never.

At the 2008 International Cup Tonga were originally meant to be part of the main draw, making their full international debut. In the last minute chaos that can occur leading up to such a big event they were scratched from the tournament as unable to commit and yet turned up anyway, ultimately playing exhibition matches in a multicultural round against Team Asia and Team Africa.

Even worse, in the lead up to the tournament, AFL Tonga (TAFA at the time) saw two of its players tragically crippled for life. Paumolevuka Tu'i (18 at the time) and Mafua Kiokata (22 at the time) were severely injured in a car accident. The Pau Mafua trust fund was established to help support the boys and in recent times assisted to provide new wheelchairs and other essentials.

No such worries this time, as the International Cup officially welcomes Tonga into the main draw. And since 2008 AFL Tonga has gone from strength to strength especially with a successful junior development program.

The Samurais for 2011 are strong in number (36 players named) and are lead by Michito Sakaki (pictured far left), who trained with Essendon back in 2008. Japan have been present at all International Cups but unfortunately that doesn't always translate into experience, with a high turnover as their mainly University-based players head off to careers. However this team isn't quite so young and does feature several players who have spent time playing in Australia including the excellent Box Hill North exchange program.

As we've come to expect, Japan will field a relatively short team, with the average height being 176 cm (5'9"). In fact, the typical player is not that small, but there are no tall key position players. The average age is about 23.

Of course it's simply a tremendous effort for the Samurai to attending the 2011 Australian Football International Cup given what a terrible year the country has had with the devastating tsunami and associated nuclear disaster. It's a cliché but just being there makes them winners.

The Tongan squad has been named for IC11. Unlike variations of the name Marlins in the past the Tongans, making their first full scale International Cup debut, will be called the Tigers (not confirmed but we assume they must have a deal with the Richmond Tigers). In 2008 they attended the Cup but competed in the multicultural draw not the main international competition.

Tonga will be coached by Jim Lucy (former New Zealand International Cup coach) who will be assisted by Edward McCowan and Mike Gawn. The side will be the first look at senior level of several of the young guns from their emerging youth teams (pictured left), and the average age is about 22. The average height is 181cm and there seems to be a lack of really big key position players, although some heights are not listed.

The Fiji Tribe has been named for IC11. Making their debut at senior level, the squad is dominated by youth, with an average age of just 20 years. Many of the youngsters from their recent youth sides (pictured at left) are included in the team.

Coached by Lawrie Woodman (AFL) and Glen Butler (AusAID Development Officer), people will be keen to see if the team brings with it the athleticism seen in players such as Nic Naitanui (West Coast Eagles). The side is by no means filled with giants, with only four players registering in the 190+cm range (6'3") and an average height less than 183 cm (6 foot). But if that quartet are solid players and can fill key positions then it should give the Tribe a good structure to build their running game around.

We now look at one of the International Cup's debutantes, Fiji. Everyone is familiar with such AFL talent as Nic Naitanui, David Rodan and Alipate Carlisle, all of Fijian descent, and the South Pacific nation will be keenly watched to see what fresh talent it brings to the competition.

The Tribe has spoken

IC11 will not just be their first attempt at International Cups but their first senior matches altogether. As such the team needed a name. That was left to the players, their families and friends. A few suggestions had been made and following a training session, AFL Fiji invited all the players and families to attend a small meeting and conducted a simple vote. This was met with immediate enthusiasm. The vote was unanimous in fact - the Fiji Tribe.

The target date set for the launch of an AFL backed national televised Women’s Australian Football League is 2020.

The date was originally set at 2013, with four to eight planned women’s teams set to become part of existing AFL teams, but after considering the amount of groundwork needed to organise it, and protests from Gold Coast and GWS that they would not have time to submit their bids in full, this was withdrawn. However, the AFL’s Female Football Development Manager, Jan Cooper, suggests that steps towards creating the competition need to be taken much earlier, with a trial run still possible in 2013.

The ultimate aim is to have an exciting product with skilled girls entertaining stadium goers and television audiences. In order to produce the talent level required, proper football pathways for women in every state need to be put in place years earlier, and the numbers of female coaches and umpires also needs to increase to support this. But there still has to be a viable competition structure for those left behind. There is a real possibility that without proper planning, existing local women’s leagues and clubs will face difficulties or even be forced to fold if they lose too many of their best players.