World Footy News

Brett Kirk's International Cup world tour continues, with the former Swans captain now in South Africa, visiting townships that play Australian football. He recently departed India and we hope to bring you details of his time there soon.

For anyone new to football and not familiar with Kirk's style, there's a small package of his work below on youtube.

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Following in the footsteps of Bayanda Sobetwa come two more South African footballers.

Johnviss Tshoboko Moagi, 20, of Johannesburg, and Khayalethu Sikiti, 25, of Cape Town, have signed with South Launceston for the upcoming 2011 Tasmanian State League. Although a bit behind the SANFL, VFL and WAFL, the TSL is still a very high standard and will be a great test for these young men. So too will the chilly Tassie weather.

Both players were named in the Lions' elite development squads back in late 2009.  Moagi is described as a midfielder with pace and stamina and Sikiti a tall forward with an exceptional vertical leap and long reach. For more read Footballers out of Africa in Tasmania's The Mercury.

Hawthorn Football Club today officially announced they have signed two of New Zealand's most promising young footballers to AFL international scholarship agreements. Rhys Panui-Leth and Shem Tatupu are both from the Auckland region and have represented AFLNZ at junior international level.

These signings are a further development of the Club's HANZ-Up! AFL Program in New Zealand which encompasses both a community participation program through KiwiKick and various school competitions, while also providing a tangible pathway for talented young sportsmen to progress to AFL in Australia.

Panui-Leth and Tatupu were both identified at Hawthorn Football Club's player testing days conducted in Auckland late last year. As part of their football scholarships, both boys will have the opportunity to travel to Melbourne to train with the Hawks throughout 2011 while also receiving specialist coaching in New Zealand.

Shae's interview on SEN this morning can be heard at http://www.sen.com.au/audioplayer/Audio/Collingwood-USA-recruit-Shae-McNamara/1888

AFL Vanuatu has informed WFN that the first Australian football club has been formed in Vanuatu. Based in the village of Erakor, Vanuatu’s first ‘AFL’ club is named the Golden Star AFL club.

AFL Vanuatu’s Justin Johnson reports that Erakor is Vanuatu’s second largest village and is only a short drive from the capital Port Vila on the island of Efate.

In December last year, 5 youths mainly from the Erakor Village area, attended the AFL Oceania Cup Under 16s tournament held in Tonga. The lads made up a combined team, the Presidents 18, along with some lads from Samoa and more local lads from Tonga.

Mal Thiel, who has been taking charge of duties in Vanuatu, took on the role as assistant coach and manager of the Presidents 18. This role was made all the harder when a couple of days in the lads were subject to theft, losing among other things passports and a video camera. Despite this set back, they played on. One Vanuatu player was invited to be part of the 40 strong ‘Combine’ testing held as part of the tournament.

Shae McNamara debuted successfully for the Collingwood Football Club on Friday night in the NAB Cup Qualifying Final at Etihad stadium. His stats - eight disposals, five marks, four ruck hit-outs and one goal (which can be seen on the Youtube video clip below) was a solid debut in the preseason competition for the big American who started well but tired and cramped as the game wore on.

Shae should be appearing on Melbourne radio stations MMM (7:30am) and SEN (8:20am) tomorrow morning (Monday) Melbourne time.

This Sunday the 27th of February sees the Glasgow Sharks kick-off their Super Six League at Glasgow Green. The Sharks Super Sixes is an intra club league made up of six aside teams from the Sharks players. The league is designed to help players gain more match experience, fitness and for those who want to play or try Aussie rules in a friendly semi competitive manner. The Sharks also hope in future to allow start-up teams in Scotland that perhaps cannot get the number of players required to play in the SARFL Competition proper to play in the sixes, as an induction to Aussie rules.

Sharks President and Coach Stephen Connor had asked for volunteers to be captains earlier in the year, and the first four that stepped forward would be the Captains. The Sharks that stepped forward were, Adam Jack, John McIntyre, Scott O`Hara and Ross Thomson. The Captains along with Stephen had the first ever Sixes Draft at the beginning of February to choose the teams, each Captain drew a number to determine who got first draft pick etc. players were selected by each captain in order until all those available had been put into 1 of 4 teams. Games will be played at Glasgow Green in the city centre on a shortened field and will consist of 2 x 20 minute halves, it's thought the central location and shortened format may capture the public interest as well as being a good tool to develop new players to the sport.

The Sharks Super Sixes is part of the ‘Sharks are circling’ campaign, aimed at getting more people in Glasgow and surrounding areas involved in Aussie Rules and along with this year’s Schools programme and other initiatives will help grow the game in Scotland. For more Information on the Sharks Super Sixes league including Fixtures, results and Stats please visit www.glasgowsharks.co.uk

Bayanda Sobetwa joined Greater Western Sydney in 2010, becoming the first player recruited to Australia from the AFL South Africa program, notionally to an AFL club (although GWS are yet to fully join the AFL). With FootyWILD in many ways the AFL's flagship international program there must also have been a degree of pressure for Sobetwa to perform.

It was a huge step up for a young South African with only a few years in the game, and his statistics playing for GWS in the Under 16 TAC Cup were modest. However he did manage 13 games which will have been invaluable experience, making the best players list twice. With an influx of Australia's best young talent into GWS for 2011 and again in 2012, it was always going to be difficult for the young trailblazer to maintain his spot.

Happily he has found a home with Port Melbourne and a position at the AFL, and will spend 2011 continuing to develop his game. worldfootynews.com spoke to the AFL's International Development manager, Tony Woods, about Bayanda Sobetwa's efforts to keep his dream alive.

As part of Brett Kirk's world odyssey he recently visited Sri Lanka and amongst his activities he taught the footy basics to youngsters in Seenigama. Youtube footage below.

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Last year Kirk was also in Sri Lanka with other AFL players including Adam Goodes, Richard Tambling and Brad Sewell, as part of a Global Reconciliation program, see Sri Lankan MP agrees to support Australian Football. Youtube footage below.

The US and Canada have been playing each other in Aussie rules internationals almost yearly since 1999, with the US mostly holding sway. This Friday night in the NAB Cup qualifying final, two men from opposite sides of the border look likely to ruck against each other. Canadian Mike Pyke and American Shae McNamara have never played for their country, or for that matter played Aussie rules in their own countries. They are converts from rugby union and basketball that promoted themselves to Sydney and Collingwood as potential converts.

Nevertheless all those involved in the USAFL and AFL Canada will be very keenly following to see if the clash eventuates and how each performs. Pyke has become an established member of the Swans as a mobile ruckman after two years in Sydney. McNamara had a solid VFL season in 2010, his first season in the game. He now takes a step up to the Collingwood senior side for this NAB Cup match in which he will be hoping to demonstrate that he belongs at the higher level and set himself up for more AFL appearances in 2011.

On the list of teams hoping to make their International Cup debut in 2011 are Indonesia, planning to field a squad composed both of from players from Indonesia as well as Indonesians resident in Australia. AFL Indonesia Development Officer Lee Van Gils is currently recruiting Indonesian nationals through the West Java league coordinated by the Jakarta Bintangs, with current plans to bring at least 12 local players across from Indonesia, possibly more if the necessary funding can be secured.

The Australian-based contingent are being organised by the Indo Footy Stars, who last year made their debut as Team Indonesia at Aussie Rules International's Harmony Cup, and who are currently preparing for another tilt against other Australian Multicultural community teams at the 2011 HC, this year to be held on March 21st at Collingwood's spiritual home Victoria Park.

24 men's and 6 women's teams still in contention.

Once the AFL's 2011 Australian Football International Cup was announced a large array of countries lined up as possible attendees. Inevitably this has thinned out as some nations decide they do not have the players or fundraising capability to get a large squad down to Australia for two full weeks.

Here is a quick snapshot of who we think are still in contention. Note it is an unofficial list, primarily summarising the results from interviews we've conducted.

For the women's it seems that despite the men from Italy waiting until 2014, the women still plan to make the journey. The list remains Ireland, PNG, USA, Italy, Canada and a combined Multicultural and Indigenous team. With a small number of countries one would think that makes getting all the international sides to IC2011 crucial for a vibrant tournament.

Read on for the men's list.