World Footy News

The AFL Italia have deciding to withdraw their men's team from the 2011 International Cup, with league president Nicola Giampaolo saying "Only in the last few days we have taken the hard decision to not go to the IC. The main reasons are the financial difficulties of funding a 30 person squad between players and staff, and the availability of the best squad of players for a period of three weeks."

Giampaolo remains upbeat about the AFL Italia's progress and believes they will be a strong position to compete in 2014. "We are a very young association. AFL Italia just stared kicking a footy around in mid 2009 and was formally registered in april 2010 and has already made huge steps forward both on the playing field (6th overall in the Euro Cup) and off the field hosting a great Euro Cup in Parabiago."

"We want to concentrate our attention on developing the national competetion and expanding the number of registered players and begin to play some 18-a-side matches. Our main goals are the European Championships in 2013 and the next International Cup in 2014 when we will have much more experience under our belt and will be able to field a competitive team."

Update: The AFL Italia women's team are still planning to attend, it is only the men's side that have withdrawn.

It was a first for Welsh ARFL club the Swansea Magpies on Tuesday 14th February 2011 where two of their senior players, Tim Atkins and Aled Morris, took Australian Rules Football into the classroom of Bishop Gore Comprehensive School. The club was invited by the local 5x60 officer, Louise Snelgrove, to introduce Aussie Rules to the Year 9 boys and girls.

The lesson went very well, with the children responding positively to a brand new sport that all but one of them had never heard of. The pupils are at a stage where they will soon choose which G.C.S.E. subjects they will take in years 10 and 11. The school were looking to use the session to help promote Physical Education G.C.S.E. and potentially offer an alternative pathway to football (soccer) and rugby. Maybe Aussie Rules will find its way into the curriculum at some point in the future.

The AFL Timor-Leste have decided to withdraw from the running for the 2011 International Cup, and will instead focus on building their domestic competition with a view to making their IC debut in 2014.

Since beginning in 2007, the AFL Timor-Leste has grown to an 11-a-side league of six teams in 2011, with the playing base now composed of over 80% local Timorese. In conjunction with senior footy, the AFLTL has been conducting Auskick clinics, and the Timor Crocs national team has made appearances at tournaments in Bali and Darwin.

The league recently received some assistance from Australia, with the Brisbane Lions sending a full set of their 2010 white away jumpers over to East Timor. Association representative and avid Lions supporter Anthony Draper said "I heard the jumpers were no longer being used and so I asked them if they could help us out, they were fantastic and sent us an entire playing kit plus some balls."

Round 1 of the NAB cup saw the new 3 team 20-minute half format. Half the clubs took the park in week 1. The preseason games allow the clubs to see how players who haven't yet made their senior AFL debut will fair against seasoned opponents and with a number of players on club lists still recovering from injuries this gives some of the internationals at clubs a chance to show their wares.

Melbourne had the best of the Adelaide teams on their own turf on Friday night showing the benefits of seasons of rebuilding a list at the bottom of the ladder. English born Brad Moran in for the Crows and Fijian-Australian Alipate Carlile suiting up for Port Adelaide.

Saturday night saw the big drawcards Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond fill Etihad stadium,  and the Pies continued where they left off 2010 in solid form. Three Irishmen took the field in Jamie O’Reilly for Richmond playing in defence, Setanta o’hAilpin at centre half forward and Zac Tuohy both lining up for Carlton. Not a great deal to report for any of them but they are up and going and in the mix for the season proper.

With the beginning of the 2011 season fast approaching, the Portland Power Australian Football Club is pleased to announce that the team has been renamed the Portland Steelheads Australian Football Club.

The Steelheads name was chosen after an exhaustive search process. Club members submitted and voted on over 100 suggestions for the new identity before choosing the Steelheads name. The image of a steelhead swimming upstream and leaping across rapids is an iconic one in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland's preparations for the International Cup are in full swing, with the Green Machine taking the unorthodox step of announcing that they are aiming to field a team consisting of only around 50% players from the Irish domestic league.

The remaining fifteen in the squad of thirty are to be selected from Irish expats currently playing footy in Australia, a move which ARFLI President Ciaran O'Hara says reflects both their belief that the Warriors should contain the best Irishmen playing Australian Football wherever they are, and also the fact that a number of former ARFLI players are now playing Down Under, particularly since last year's financial crisis saw a large number of Irishmen emigrate.

With a large dose of Australian suburban and country footy experience, the Irish could be very tough to beat at the IC11, although O'Hara is expecting old rivals such as PNG, New Zealand, South Africa and Nauru to have stepped up in standard since 2008.

The 2011 International Cup will be the first to feature a women's division, with the USA, Ireland, Canada, PNG and Italy among those who have expressed an intereste to head to Australia.

Despite being relative newcomers to the international footy scene, the AFL Italia are planning to send both a men's and women's squad Down Under, after their women's side faced off against Ireland in Europe's first-ever international women's match last October.

Peta Lowry from the AFL Italia spoke to WFN about the Italian national women's team and their preparations.

US Revolution Head Coach, Matt Bishop, is excited and nervous about the big year ahead, with his team heading to the International Cup in Sydney and Melbourne in August. "The anticipation and anxiety levels have certainly shot up since the clock ticked into 2011. While there are many projects to be completed before the International Cup part of me wishes it was here already!"

First on the agenda for the team is a training camp in Austin Texas at the end of February. "The Revolution training squad has been reduced to 37 players and our main goal over the next six weeks is to reduce this to the 28 that will be travelling to Australia in August. Once we have selected the squad we will be monitoring the progress of the players through testing very similar to that used at the AFL Draft Combines. I believe that, in the future, the AFL will utilize the testing protocols they have developed to screen potential international talent and they have already given that indication with World XVIII applicants required to complete aspects of the testing.

The Australian Football League Germany will return to a six team competition in 2011, with the return of the Hamburg Dockers to the main draw.

A two division structure was implemented in 2009, to help Stuttgart ease into the league, allow Berlin a season to rebuild, and give the reserve teams from power clubs Rheinland and Munich somewhere to play. This hasn't been repeated since, with clubs instead starting to move towards the "metro league" model of concentrating on 9-a-side local footy between the national league fixtures.

Germany's first 9-a-side metro league was founded by the Munich Roos last year, with the squad divided into three teams and over 50 players playing a match in the Bayernliga over the course of the 2010 season. This year, the Rheinland Lions and Berlin Crocodiles are looking at starting their own metro competitions.

David Mudge from the Roos says "the Bayernliga was a huge success last year, generating a pile of new recruits to the sport. We thought about expanding to four teams but in the end will keep it to the established three, with the exception that if Nürnberg get a team together, or even half a dozen guys, they have a standing invitation to participate as the fourth team."

While the title suggests a story about expats, the story in the video below focuses as much on Americans playing the game in the US and the AFL's desire to recruit American athletes to the AFL. Featuring interviews with Dave Matthews, Tony Woods, Robert Dipierdomenico, Jon Loring, Cameron Pinnock and Ojas Desai among others with footage of USAFL matches.

The AFL Britain have a new committee coordinating the regional English clubs north of London, with Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams recently appointed president of the newly-formed AFL Britain North.

This committee includes all clubs from both the Central & North West and North East leagues, after the 2010 season saw the North East league struggle for numbers and come close to collapsing. New secretary of the AFL Britain North is Great Britain Bulldogs and England Dragonslayers rep Alistair Dellooze.

2011 will be a big year for English footy, with not only preparations for the Bulldogs' International Cup campaign, but also the European Legion vs AFL/AIS match in London, and the first London vs Country match scheduled to be held in Worksop.

LEFT: The Huddersfield Rams in 2010

Two IC11 matches will be staged as curtain raiser to AFL matches.

As per previous International Cups, the Grand Final will be played at the MCG, on Saturday the 27th of August prior to the Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn match.

There will also be a match before the Sydney v St Kilda game on Sunday the 21st of August at ANZ Stadium, Sydney - the two competing teams will be assigned once the final draw is done. It's likely to feature two of the top sides to showcase the increasing standard of international Aussie Rules.

The Australian Football League has also scheduled a lunch for the captains of the competing nations to be hosted by AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou. The lunch will be held in Melbourne on Thursday the 25th of August, 2011.