World Footy News

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”.

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.