World Footy News

The inaugural European Legion squad has been named to take on Australia's youth when the AFL/AIS Academy tours Europe in April.  The day will also see Ireland's Warriors take on the British Bulldogs, in what will no doubt be a crucial match for players heading to IC11 in August.

As reported on the AFL Europe website, the European Legion Squad to face the AFL/AIS Academy in London on April 23rd contains representatives from Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Wales. The team will be coached by AFL Europe Commissioner and former Melbourne Demons Player, Glenn Lovett. Glenn will be assisted by visiting coach Brett Kirk and Daniel Maclaer from Sweden. 24 players were invited to participate, with one player Sylvain Maylie having to decline his invitation. His place in the squad has been taken by Sam Brunton from England. The Squad is as follows.

The third instalment of the AFL’s International Cup featured a bit of a ‘left field’ inclusion - the Peres Peace Team, a combined Israeli-Palestinian side comprising 13 players from each background. Anyone who watched the ‘Tackling Peace’* documentary on Channel 10 back in 2009, was perhaps left pondering the chances of a revisit of the team. Without much fanfare then – it was a pleasant surprise when the AFL released its list of country’s considering and likely to attend IC2011, and there in the list was the Peace Team.

The original idea for the team owed much to Tanya Oziel**, who is the Executive Director of the Peres Centre for Peace in Australia, and also a Sydney mum whose son Chaim took up footy with the Maroubra Saints. The Peres Centre for Peace had and has been involved in Sports as a tool for ‘peace-building’. In Jan 2008, around 100 potential players were introduced to the game via DVD’s and the white board, by Feb a squad of 40 embarked on about 7 months of intensive training prior to heading to Australia for the late August start to the IC. The Peace Team would be the result of the combined efforts of the Peres Center of Peace and the Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue. Training in itself was a major challenge, including that a team of players unfamiliar with the game had to be training in 2 languages, and without goal posts.

The Bristol Dockers will be playing in the Welsh Australian Rules Football League in 2011, after the WARFL committee last weekend voted unanimously to admit them to the league.

The Dockers are one of England's oldest clubs outside London, starting as the Bristol Bears in the old BARFL back in 1991. For the past few seasons, they have competed in the AFL London Social Division, but after the 2010 season were keen to move to the 9-a-side format and play locally.

Jason Bryant from the Dockers says that "there were a few reasons we moved away from the London Social league, firstly the London league didn't inform us in any discussions about the 2011 season so when we contacted them, everything had already been decided and unable to join. This was the same case for the Southern League. We were told by AFL GB heads that the only option left to play in 2011 was the Welsh league as they hadn't decided their competition schedule."

The West Midlands of England will again be home to 3 clubs in 2011, with the reformation of the Birmingham Bears for play in the AFL Britain Central & North West Division. The Bears went into recess just before the 2010 season, with the league asking the newly-formed Wolverhampton Wolverines to take over most the Bears' fixtures for the year.

Wolverhampton president Ian Mitchell says 2010 was a challenge for the Wolverines, with most of the players still learning the game. "Last season we played in a social capacity in the C&NW Division of AFL Britain, taking many of Birmingham Bears fixtures that they couldn't fulfil. We lost the majority of our games that we played, it was a steep learning curve as all of the players were new to the game, apart from myself and one or two Australians that we managed to collect on the way. We finally won our last game of last season against the other new club in the area, the Hull Mariners."

This weekend will see the Wolverines take on the Bears in a pre-season friendly, with the following weekend seeing them joined by the Birmingham Uni Sharks for the inaugural 3-team West Midlands Charity Cup, which will raise funds for the Queensland Floods Appeal.

The Australian Football League have unveiled the logo for the 2011 International Cup. After the three previous Cups had all used variations of the same design it's nice to see a fresh look. It's hoped IC11 will feature 6 women's sides and 20 to 24 men's sides.

The video below showcases Alberta footy in Calgary, Canada leading into their 2011 season. For more info go to www.albertafooty.com

The AFL today announced the women’s section of the IC11 will be played between the 15th - 27th of August, 2011. The focus of the IC11 will be turned to the women when they play their first ever AFL International Cup matches on Monday 15th of August, 2011.

There are no men’s games scheduled for this day. Other women’s matches will coincide with the men’s section of the event.

Last year the World XVIII youth side competed at the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships for the first time, alongside South Pacific who were also on debut. worldfootynews.com considers this one of the AFL's best international initiatives as it provides a pathway for young talent and also focuses leagues on the need to bring through the next generation. Most on-the-ground costs are covered by the AFL, but although the South Pacific players seem to find funding to make their way Down Under the World XVIII appears to be less well supported.

So in 2010 we helped fund Denmark's Mathias Biron in his journey to Australia, putting in AUD$800 to help with airfares. In 2011 we're looking to assist one or two players again. We can part fund it from our modest site income, but we are also throwing open the invitation for our readers to contribute if they wish. Rather than have a tin rattle for small donations here or there, we are initially asking for pledges of commitment from anyone who would like to help so we can get an idea of how much we might raise before then discussing with the AFL the best way to use it. However the AFL have indicated they support our idea. Simply send us an email at supportworld18@worldfootynews.com with your details and pledge and we will contact you later if we go ahead.

You can read more on last year's supported player in Young Dane off to a good start and Biron's World XVIII experience put to good use.

Wednesday 16th February was a big night for friends of AFL Fiji, with the still relatively young organisation taking a large step forward in raising significant funds at their Island Night Cocktail Party.  We've been sitting on the story awaiting the final total and yesterday Carla Rodan was able to confirm that just over AUD$20,000 was raised.

Organised by AFL Fiji Australia Directors David and Carla Rodan and Alipate Carlisle, the event was staged at the Strathmore Hotel in Adelaide, South Australia. Port Adelaide AFL players David Rodan and Alipate Carlisle (pictured left), both of Fijian heritage, were gratefully able to access some of Port's generous sponsors, allowing for a big turnout and some good bids on auction items.

The USAFL today announced their 27 man squad for their tilt at the 2011 International Cup title.  After an exhaustive process started in 2009 the final makeup was determined recently at the squad's camp in Austin Texas.

The captain of the team will be Dan “Sars” Sarbacker who is experienced in playing with the Revolution as well as having a stint playing in Australia in 2010.  Luke Nemeth, Chris Candelaria, RJ Wheelock with previous IC experience and Andrew Werner with Revolution and Australian experience form the leadership group.

One of the important assets a sport can have is wealthy patrons willing to invest in the game, be it team ownership, generous sponsorship or assistance with additional programs such as philanthropic work. Rob Gerard has been one such important person in Australian football in South Australia for many years, but recently he has also embraced the round ball code, and in doing so brought about a very curious merger of interests, with local Australian football state league side North Adelaide in some sense taking over the running of Adelaide United, the state's soccer side in the national A-League. Is this a dangerous precedent or just good business?

The Croatian Knights are one of Europe's rising Australian football teams, consistently winning 9's tournaments and starting to challenge the more established nations.  In 2011 they are striving to continue growing the game and to reach their first AFL International Cup but face an uphill battle in sponsorship.  But the players and officials lack nothing in energy and ingenuity, taking their campaign to both the streets and the internet.

A key part of that push has been through the slogan Imaš muda? (Got balls?) and the corresponding website.  They also have the obligatory Facebook page.  Tireless footy enthusiast Kolja Koracak told worldfootynews.com that the "Croatian Knights are working hard to make people aware of us and to gain new members. They organized a guerilla marketing campaign where they hung 15 banners at each of Zagreb's bridges and overpass with the words 'imaš muda' which means 'got balls'."

We wish them all the best in their quest to both promote the game and to make it to Australia in 2011.