World Footy News

The AFL is now 21 years old and to commemorate the milestone Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper pondered what the sport's top league might look like in 2032, another 21 years time.

The paper talked to well known international advocate Kevin Sheedy, Geelong President and former AFL Commissioner Colin Carter, and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou.

As much as the international footy community loves Sheed's enthusiasm, to read Demetriou suggesting the AFL may include clubs from outside of Australia was perhaps the the most significant aspect of the article. Many involved in international footy would love to see that happen, and Sheedy and Colin Carter (a long time advocate for South Africa) have suggested it before, but to have Demetriou state it as a possibility publicly could be considered quite a break through.

Sports branding studio Locker Room 51, founded by long-time international footy identity and Croatian Knights stalwart Kolja Koračak, has produced a poster for fans of the 2011 International Cup to follow and record the scores from the tournament.

Pictured at left is a low-res version of the draw and score card for the Lightning Tournament/Seeding Round, with the full size version available here.

Locker Room 51 have created sports branding for a number of clubs and organisations spanning many different sports. In Australian rules football, their work is well-known around Europe and further afield, including logos for the EU and Euro Cups, European Championships, the European Legion jumper, and numerous clubs and league logos.

Ed - Sorry for this story disappearing for a few hours, we had some issues with the media gallery not letting people download the full-sized file. Seems to be working now, email us if you have any further problems downloading it.

Scottish Auskick is a juniors program that will teach children the fundamental skills needed to play Aussie Rules. The organisation was formed in late 2010 to cover a need to develop and grow the game in Scotland, especially at a junior level, and help alleviate some of the annual need to look for new mature aged players to play the sport that each club must go through.

It is hoped by teaching the game in Schools and setting up junior leagues, these players will then progress to Club and hopefully International level.

It was decided to use the name Scottish ‘Auskick’ and retain the link with the already established and successful NAB Auskick program in Australia so that people would perhaps recognise what the program was about instantly when they heard the name. Rather than rush into a program we decided to first seek the correct accreditation to enable our Coaches to teach in Schools and in the community, and for this, Scottish Auskick would like to thank ‘AFL Auskick’ and Disclosure Scotland for their support and guidance throughout the process.

The full first day's draw for the men's side of the 2011 AFL International Cup is listed below.

The seedings were basely mainly on IC08 placements, and sees the 18 teams placed in six pools. The top two from each pool go through to Division 1 and the bottom team from each goes through to Division 2. See Lightning tournament opening and seedings for the seedings and the full discussion of how the later rounds will be played. Once the Cup is underway we'll post articles showing the upcoming matches.

Below are the times and locations for the Round 1 matches.

For the first time the nations competing at the 2011 AFL International Cup will have not just the Cup to win but also prize money.

Nominal Prize money has been introduced for the first time.  The AFL's Tony Woods explained, "While we recognise the amateur status of the tournament, the spirit of the International Cup and the motivation behind participants we are keen to provide a small token reward that can be used to assist in the development of the game on the team’s return to their country. Prize money will be awarded by way of a grant to the recipient countries for the 2012 season."

The breakdown is as follows: 

2011 sees the inaugural Women's International Cup in Australian Football. Unfortunately Italy appears to have unexpectedly decided they will not be attending, which has thrown some uncertainty into the schedule.

The AFL has said that given there is no women's International Cup history, rankings were random and drawn out of a hat.

Final teams for IC11 Women’s and rankings are:

1. PNG
2. Australia *
3. Canada
4. Ireland
5. USA

* Australian Indigenous/Multicultural team

The Australian Football League has released the draw and details of the 2011 AFL International Cup. The fourth Cup will feature 18 men's sides and 5 women's sides. Here we will focus on the man, and detail the women's schedule in a later article.

The men's competition will see the teams seeded from 1 to 18 and then sorted into 6 approximately even pools for a lightning tournament in the style of the 2011 NAB AFL Cup (pre-season). On the opening day the teams will play each of the other two members of their pool in games of 2 x 15 minute halves (10 min half-time break). The result will be 6 pools of 3 sorted teams. The top 2 from each will go through to Division 1 and the bottom side from each will form Division 2. Hence there will be 12 in Div 1 and 6 in Div 2.

The seedings are:

* Did not compete IC08

The AFL today announced the final list of 18 participating nations in the men's edition of the 4th International Cup in August 2011, and 5 nations in the inaugural women's division.

The countries that will participate in the men's carnival are; Canada, China, Denmark, East Timor, Fiji, France, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Japan, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peace Team (comprising of both Israeli and Palestinian players), Sweden, South Africa, Tonga and USA.

There are four men's teams making their International Cup debut; East Timor, Fiji, France, and Tonga. Not making the journey are Switzerland, who were still hoping to make their IC debut earlier this year, and IC08 participants Samoa and Finland.

For the first time five women’s teams will also participate; Canada, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, USA and a combined multicultural and Indigenous team.

Venues in Sydney’s Greater West will host matches from Saturday August 13 to Sunday August 21 and Melbourne’s Royal Park will host matches on Wednesday August 24 and Friday August 26.

Two International Cup matches will be played as AFL curtain-raisers; before Sydney Swans v St Kilda at ANZ Stadium on Sunday August 21 and the grand final match will be played prior to Hawthorn v Western Bulldogs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday August 27. Both AFL matches will feature a ‘Parade of Nations’ where all teams will be presented at halftime.

 In 2010 the World XVIII team featured one Irish player, Sean O’ Kennedy from Donegal. Ireland.  O'Kennedy perfomed well and had the chance to also train with the Collingwood Football Club in Melbounre. 

This year the lone Irish representative is Muiris Bartley who came to the attention of ARFLI Selectors through his progress with Coláiste an Phiarsaigh and the Leeside Lions. 

According to Corkman.ie "Muiris, has been involved with his local GAA club in juvenile, minor and U21 football until recently, where he showed tremendous promise until a cruciate injury left him sidelined until early this year.

He played in the early round of the U21 c'ship but opted out after that for his own reasons, he is certainly a player of great promise and with his high fielding abilities, he could quite easily make his mark in that code, wishing him all the best and hoping he will enjoy the experience and make the most of his opportunity."

The SANFL and AFL today announced a funding plan to see South Australian football through to 2014 when the financial picture is expected to brighten considerably with both the state's AFL clubs moving to Adelaide Oval.

Key features of the deal are:

• A grant to the Port Adelaide Football Club from the AFL of $1 million for each of the three years (2011, 2012 and 2013)
• A loan to the SA Football Commission from the AFL of $2 million per year for each of the three years (2011, 2012 and 2013) to be provided as grants to the Port Adelaide Football Club, representing a total grant to the club of $9 million over three years
• The AFL to provide a facility for the SA Football Commission to draw up to $1.5 million per year for three years (2011, 2012 and 2013)
• The SA Football Commission will provide a financial package valued at $1 million per year to the Adelaide Football Club over three years (2012, 2013 and 2014), representing a total contribution to the Crows of $3 million.

AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou explained that "Football in South Australia needs two strong clubs in Port Adelaide and the Adelaide Crows competing strongly on the national stage and the AFL competition wants both teams to have every chance to bring success to their supporters."

The NZ Hawks have named their team after their final training camp mid-June. The squad has many familiar faces to those who follow NZ footy with some of the faces already following the pathway from the U16's to the senior team.

WFN will provide the exact details of the squad as soon as they are available but for a snapshot see here.