World Footy News

It may only be March, and one of the teams may only be less than a year old, however this weekend will see Round 1 of the newly formed Southern China Football League (SCAFL) played amongst much fanfare in Guangzhou this Saturday.

In possibly the biggest development in the Asian scene so far this year and another watershed moment for Australian Football in China, four teams in the Pearl River Delta region of China (Guangzhou Scorpions, Hong Kong Red, Hong Kong Blue & Macau Lightning) will come together this Saturday for what’s been billed as the inaugural ‘Gala Round’ and ultimately hold 5 rounds up until June to decide the premier team of the 2011 season.

The league is the third to be started in China in as many years, with the Beijing Bombers and Shanghai Tigers clubs starting 9-a-side leagues, BAFL in 2009 & SHAFL in 2010 respectively, as a way to fill the gaps in competition calendars that long distance can cause. The SCAFL however, is unique in that it is played with 12 players per side, incorporates 3 established clubs in the region who are within only 1-3 hours travel of each other and Guangzhou’s home ground is a world class cricket stadium, used in last year’s Asian Games.

Editor:  worldfootynews.com welcomes back Andrew "Sanga" Sawitsch to our writing team, after his extended time working in Japan and China.

A group of volunteers in Melbourne have been assisting AFL Samoa for some years. They are endeavouring to assist the committee in Apia which is going through a re-building stage. Unfortunately there has not been a development person provided through the Australian Youth Aid Development (AYAD) organisation for some time.

The Melbourne based volunteers are seeking anyone currently living in Samoa that may wish to assist the hard working committee at AFL Samoa.

The volunteers in Melbourne can be reached through contacting WFN.

The Canterbury Cobras are set to defend their U20 NPC title this weekend at Parrs Park, Auckland.

Teams from Canterbury, Wellington, Auckland and the New Zealand Under 16 team will compete for national honours and the opportunity to represent the New Zealand Under 20 team October 2011 against the Victiorian Amatuer Football Association in two matches also to be held in Auckland.

In a pleasing development there will be limited expansion of the event with players from Otago and the Waikato also attending the tournament in a development year. Hopefully this will prove to be a springboard for those regions to compete in their own right in the future.

Community football clubs affected by the recent floods in Queensland and Victoria will receive $325,000 to help them rebuild following fundraising activities at the 2011 NAB Cup. The funds raised from the NAB Cup bring to nearly $1 million the contribution from AFL supporters, the AFL Players’ Association, AFL clubs and the AFL to help the rebuilding efforts after one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

A 15 per cent contribution from the gate receipts for all round one matches of the NAB Cup (about $3 per adult ticket) went towards supporting community football clubs affected by the floods.

During her current visit to the US, the Australian Prime Minister presented the US President Barack Obama with a Sherrin footy. And while footy followers would have liked to have seen her in traditional Australian touring outfit, her Bulldogs footy jumper, they would have been glad to see the official Whitehouse photographer captured their kick to kick and handball session. Obama later joked that a statue of Abraham Lincoln was almost destroyed in the session as the two awaited a motorcade to be organised for a joint roadtrip.

Who knows what we could see on future tours, perhaps Australia's "Big Red" PM having kick to kick at the Kremlin, drop punts with the Pontiff or Torpedoes at the Taj Mahal? The real influence of the Australian prime minister may be seen though if Mr Obama has four posts installed at either end of his Oval office. And playing away from home shouldn't she really be wearing white shorts?

It appears that there is momentum slowly gathering to reduce the number of players on the field in Australian football matches from 18 to 16. For the majority of leagues across Australia 18 has been the magic number for a century or more, but with the rapidly changing nature of the sport through the last few decades, this author has long supported the idea of at least trialling 16-a-side.

The AFL are often blamed for "ruining the game" by changing rules.  While it is true they have sometimes fiddled with laws that effect the fabric of the sport, much of the changes in the game have been natural as a result of the professionalism that comes with a national competition, such as players covering far more ground, not staying in conventional positions, increased use of tactics and better quality surfaces (i.e. no more muddy bogs in mid-winter).

Some of the changes have bettered the sport, some arguably have not.  We now see far more congestion around the ball, almost like "mini-league" or Auskick.  Some of the great highlights were seeing a wingman dashing down the field looking to either penetrate to 50m for a shot on goal or pass into space for a forward.  Now they confront a flood of opponents and have no where to run.  A ball kicked out into space used to see a foot-race and then a one on one battle - now the only space is back behind the player with the ball. 

In a repeat of last year’s final the Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs, established in 1973, were gunning for their fourth title in a row and their ninth since 1996 (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007-09). They were playing the Hutt Valley Eagles who had won their only Premiership as the Upper Hutt Eagles defeating the Bulldogs in 1995. In an interesting aside the Bulldogs' current, and 4 times Premiership, coach John Jackson was in his first season as a player that year. The teams had met 3 times over the season and the Eagles had come out ahead 2 – 1. This year’s final was expected to be a hard fought close battle between two teams, a reflection of their meetings over the past season.

The WAFL season had been very disappointing to this point. Originally the season was scheduled to commence in September but due to unavailability of grounds it did not get underway until November. This created a split season with a four week break through the summer. A break in a season which is not planned for can just lead to players taking the break and never coming back. The North City Demons did not even get to the break before they were in trouble. After only Round One, where they brought the bare minimum of 15 players, the next two games they turned up short resulting in scratch matches and after that were unsighted. When trying to keep the other teams keen, often with half their teams new to the code, this is lethal in creating commitment to the sport. After the Christmas break it was the Wellington Saints turn to not be able to field a side so the last two rounds became dual forfeits after the Bulldogs and Eagles had their great January clash. This was the only round robin game that actually went ahead in the second part of the season.

As part of the AFL's push into Western Sydney, one important thrust has been tapping into the area's many multicultural communities, with one club in particular having been a recent success story.

The Auburn Tigers were only founded in 2010, and the majority of their playing base in drawn from players of Palestinian or Lebanese background. In their debut season, they went through the fixture undefeated and took out the Sydney AFL Division 4 premiership, with 2011 seeing them enter sides in both Division 2 and Division 4.

One conrnerstone of the club is the Kassem family, with all nine brothers involved in the club, as well as their sister who has started a women's club, which counts 38 members so far, mostly muslim and playing in headscarves.

AFL indigenous and multicultural development officer Ali Faraj says ''The Auburn local government area is the multicultural hub of Australia,'' Faraj said. ''Of the 70,000-odd population, 78 per cent of the community speak a second language at home. There are 6000 Chinese-born residents, 4000 Vietnamese, as well as Koreans, Lebanese, Turkish, Somalis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis …"

''Sometimes this area gets so much negative publicity. But it's about the individuals, the people who want to get something out of life, and with the GWS Giants here now, the people here can engage with AFL and also have aspirations to play at a high level.''

With the first rounds of the 2011 International Cup to be held in Sydney's Western Suburbs, clubs like the Tigers will likely be featuring in the multicultural team(s) to be competing against the best from overseas.

For more, read Kassem family show how to win the West.

 

worldfootynews.com caught up with AFL International Development Manager Tony Woods the morning after the big AFL Fiji fundraiser in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago (Tony is pictured with David Rodan Senior, Fiji's coach).  Some of those discussions have featured in recent articles.  In this part we canvas how he has found the role, the new development officer in Europe, and for those in international footy who have had close dealings with the AFL's Josh Vanderloo, we asked about his current status in relation to the international side of the game.

AFL PNG has enjoyed nothing short of phenomenal success over the past decade. This is evidenced through the many footballers they have playing football at many levels within Australia. This weight of numbers has been driven by a focused plan to spot talent from a very early age and provide a pathway for the players to develop through. They have had, and continue to have, a committed base of volunteers, both nationals and expatriates, who are focused on the big picture.

Currently they have a number of their established stars who are tied to AFL clubs, with Labi, Barry and Meli all having good pre seasons at Carlton, Brisbane and Essendon respectively. John James has just done 8 weeks with North Melbourne, who are keeping an eye on him this year.

Stanis Susuve and Amua Pirika are not currently with AFL clubs after both being listed in previous years. Pirika is playing in the NTFL with Darwin Buffaloes whilst Susuve is training with Mt Gravatt in Queensland after playing in Labrador’s losing Grand Final team alongside Emmaus Wartova.

Of the next generation of talent, Gideon Simon and Nathan Malbak are of course tied to Richmond, as we reported earlier, whilst Slim Collins took part in the AIS AFL camp and will play State League in Qld.

The floodgates have opened and we can expect many more of their fellow Papua New Guineans to join them over the next few years.

AFL Vanuatu is hoping to build on early encouraging momentum. As reported previously, the village of Erakor is getting right behind them. AFL Vanuatu will be holding a registration day soon, aimed at getting more kids involved and playing on an oval with permanent Australian footy goal posts.

Planning ahead, AFL Vanuatu are aiming to get a full squad together for the next instalment of the Oceania U16 championships. And while Vanuatu was listed earlier as interested in the International Cup – the reality is that their short term ambition on that front would be whether a couple of the older players could be included in some form of combined side.

Justin Johnson paid tribute to the AFL for the support so far, the AFL having “committed a lot of equipment resources and we are hugely appreciative of their efforts. "Cadz (AFLPNG Asia/Pacific manager Andrew Cadzow) in Brisbane clearly understands the challenges ahead for us and has been an incredible help."

PNG are leaving no stone unturned as they seek to gather their strongest squad as defending champions at this year’s International Cup.

As detailed in this article AFL Asia-Pacific Manager busy in PNG, many of the Port Moresby District’s best players will be taking on the Australian Bolters including Spider Everitt, Aussie Jones, Mal Michael and Mat Rogers who will enhance the Queensland AFL selection.

In the Northern Selection camp on the weekend 5/6th March in Lae where the Highlands and Island regions will be in attendance there will be testing and 2 games. A combination of AFL International Development Mananger Tony Woods, AFL Asia-Pacifc Manager Andrew Cadzow, PNG Coach David Lake and his Assistant Walter Yagomina will view these events. Final squad selection will be made the following week of 35 players which will be cut to 30 by end of April.

The nation also has 18 Australian-based scholarship players who have arrived in Australia. They would be expected to make up the bulk of the final squad though according to Andrew Cadzow he doesn’t “expect the AFL listed blokes to play”. As per past Cups Cadzow expects the selectors will go very young and they may even play a couple of the AFL PNG Academy boys who are aged around 16 years.

When asked for his thoughts on this year’s International Cup sides other than PNG, Cadzow said he "expected New Zealand and Nauru to be on the money, Tonga big improvers and Samoa and Fiji to be competitive from the Pacific". Given that the Irish are currently looking to supplement their home grown squad with nationals resident elsewhere he thought “Ireland will be extremely hard to beat” . Cadzow is expecting a divisional draw which will “make for more games of good football” though as with such tournaments they can be decided as a result of “a war of attrition through injuries etc”.