World Footy News

Denmark return for the third time out of four International Cups. Long lauded as having the most advanced junior program in Europe, the Danes will be keen to start putting results on the board. An impressive runners-up at the 2010 European Championships suggests the team is on the right path.

The Vikings' squad has a reasonably tall average height at nearly 184 cm, although only one really tall player in Michael Neugebauer at 198 cm (6'6"), who has been playing for the Fitzroy Reds in Victoria. As usual the majority of the Danes come from the successful Farum Cats club on the island of Zealand (home to the capital Copenhagen).

There's also a good mix of players from other clubs and a couple based in other countries, in René Damborg Jensen (Norway) and Páll Tómas Finnsson (France), as well as Neugebauer. The average age is 26.

Japan has finalised its squad for IC11 and bring a diverse mix of experience to Australia, with the hope of stepping up to being recognised as a top 4 team.

Japan has become a regular appearance at all international footy events, from the early days of the Arafura Games, to having attended every International Cup tournament since 2002. Their performances have shown a steady improvement and their 8th placing in the 2008 International Cup was a credit to their hard work and determination. Now they hope to continue their rise up the rankings.

As previously mentioned in WFN articles, AFL Japan’s resilience and organisation in attending this year’s International Cup, on the back of a pretty traumatic 12 months for the country with the Tsunami, is simply outstanding.

WFN has caught up with team manager, Hideki Miyasaka, on how the team’s preparations are going.

In breaking news charismatic former South African Lions captain Mtutuzeli Hlomela, who seemed to have left the sport, is back in the South African side for the 2011 AFL International Cup.  In many ways Mtutu was the face of international footy and his return will be as welcome as it was unexpected.

More information to follow as it becomes available.

Great Britain's IC11 squad has a very fresh look, with very few players (we believe two) that represented them at IC08. As discussed in our preview, the Bulldogs are increasingly drawing on players spread across Britain, not just relying on players out of London.

Like Ireland the Brits have several players who are currently playing in Australia, although not the extremely large numbers of their neighbours. Unlike some of their opponents the Bulldogs have some very tall players that should give them good structure around key positions and in many matches first tap at ball ups. Two players (Anthony Trigg and Chris James) are 205 cm (nearly 6'9") and six are in the 190s. Compare that with Japan that has no one over 186 cm - so that's at least a 19 cm (7 inch) advantage in ruck (not including reach) if these two teams meet. The average height is 185 cm (nearly 6'1") which makes this one of the tallest squads at IC11. The average age is nearly 27.

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.