World Footy News

This year, there will be some young Canadian talent joining the Hampton Rovers in Melbourne's VAFA. Four recent recruits to the Ontario Australian Football League will be heading down under to play the 2011 season in suburban footy.

The journey started back in October 2009, when Jaye Macumber, coach of the Central Blues AFC in Canada and current coach of Team Canada, was looking to recruit some new, young talent for his football club. After contacting Canadian company The Aussie X, he was able to arrange for his club to participate in a week long program at a local high school in Toronto, Neil McNeil HS.

With PNG the AFL Oceania Youth Cup holders AFLPNG are certainly not sitting back and resting on their laurels. With the appointment of the new Director of the AFLPNG Academy Moses Kar, a expanded intake of students awarded scholarships to the De La Salle Football Academy and two of their stars at the Youth Cup spending a week training with AFL Club Richmond football remains very much to the forefront.

The relationship between AFLPNG and De La Salle Secondary School has strengthened with AFLPNG awarding scholarships to 27 students for 2011. Building on 2010 whereby 17 boys attended De La Salle on AFLPNG scholarships, De La Salle has supported the development of the game by allowing AFL to be an integral part of the boys' curriculum.

The Academy scholarship recipients come from throughout PNG and have made incredible improvements within their first year. The Academy has achieved great success in both the Oceania Cup held in Tonga and the Australian U/16 Championships representing South Pacific. They also performed admirably against the indigenous Flying Boomerangs in December last year.

After being previously invited many times to view the talent in NZ, Kevin Sheedy, AFL visionary and coach of Israel Folau and the Greater Western Sydney team, will attend a combined training session involving the New Zealand Under 16s and Auckland Under 20s representative teams on Sunday, January 30th.

The training session will take place at Parrs Park, Oratia in Auckland's Western Suburbs, with the session starting at 10.00am and followed by a barbeque and question time with Kevin Sheedy at 11.45am. Sheedy will be available to address the media at 12.30pm.

Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported on 29.1.11 that Sheedy had expressed an interest in recruiting two members of the NZ AFL Oceania Youth Cup squad which was played in Tonga during December 2010. Athletic key defender Charlton Brown and strong marking flanker Brandon Sucu are known to be on GWS's radar.

Sheedy said that "With more than 10,000 youngsters playing Aussie Rules in NZ, there was some outstanding talent there to be discovered."

Former Sydney Swans' captain Brett Kirk and his family are about to embark on his round the world odyssey promoting the 2011 International Cup. The International Cup Ambassador begins his six-month world tour today, Friday, January 28.

He will travel to more than 15 nations that will participate in the 2011 International Cup in August. His first stop is Sri Lanka. He will then continue to India, South Africa, Europe and North America.

“I look forward to working with and visiting nations which have embraced our game and are preparing for the International Cup,” Brett said.

Follow Brett Kirk’s Odyssey on Twitter, Facebook and the web.

An AFL delegation, led by former Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod, has addressed a United Nations forum on racism in sport. Andrew McLeod, a dual Norm Smith Medalist and premiership player, and the AFL’s National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud spoke at the forum on `Combating Racism in Sport’ at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva on Australia Day.

The following is a transcript of Andrew McLeod’s address.

The Hull Mariners are one of England's newest Aussie rules clubs, and in addition to kicking off senior football in the town, the club is getting straight into junior development.

As part of the growth of Hull Mariners Australian Rules FC, Development officers Dan Beardshaw and Carl Hagar have being working hard to lay down firm roots within the local schools throughout the city of Hull.

“After initially contacting P.E. staff throughout the city, we were happy that we had the interest to put together our own school system, one that would suit anybody who wants to take the field," says Hagar.

“Whilst many players are happy to just play for their school, some may want to try and test themselves and play at a higher level and we want to give them the opportunity to not only represent their school, but the local community as well."

AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou's pre-recorded address to the UN forum can be watched by clicking "Watch" on the video below. Footage of international teams and matches are included in the video. The importance of the international competitions to the game overall can be felt in the video and among Andrew's words.

Last year AFL talent scouts had their first look at South America, with trials held in Buenos Aires (see Search for talent in Argentina).

The initial outcome was two players featuring in the World XVIII that played in the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships last year.  It seems the search may now turn to Brazil.

Jon Pierik in the Sydney Morning Heralds reports that player agent Peter Jess is hoping to interest Collingwood in growing the program in 2011.  ''I will be talking to Collingwood next week about holding some camps there [Brazil],'' Jess said. ''There will be a group of people working within Brazil, members of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, who have agreed to act as talent scouts for us.''  See The Boys From Brazil for the full article. 

An AFL delegation, led by former Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod, has been invited to address a forum on racism in sport at the United Nations in Geneva on Australia Day. The high level, interactive panel discussion on `Combating Racism Through Sport’ will be held next Wednesday, January 26, at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Panelists will include dual Norm Smith medalist and Adelaide premiership player Andrew McLeod, the AFL’s National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda Andrew McLeod joined the AFL as Community Engagement and Talent Co-ordinator and coach of the Flying Boomerangs in 2010 after a career spanning 340 games and two premierships with the Adelaide Crows. He is also a member of the Australian Football Indigenous Team of the Century.

The Croatian Knights are seeking sponsors for their 2011 International Cup campaign, with team manager Kolja Koracak currently rating his team only about a 25% chance to be able to attend.

"We never had big sponsors, but now we have none. We would stay with people in the Croatian community in Sydney and Melbourne, but have no funds for travel expenses, as most of my players are students, or recent graduates still unemployed," says Koracak.

There are about 40 active players in Croatia, although Koracak says that selection will be made mainly by who can travel. "There are 7 guys that will go no matter what, even if Croatia doesn't field a team they'll come to watch. And there are 10 guys that can go for sure if travel expenses get covered. We also plan to find few Croatian blokes in Australia that fit the criteria of eligibility," Koracak says.

The coaching panel is led by head coach Adam Loncar and assistant coach Josip Kravar, both of whom led the Knights at the European Championships and Euro Cup last year. Added are Josip Josipovic as a conditioning coach and Matija Mamic.

Croatia has been one of European footy newer power sides, performing strongly at the EU Cup and making their full-field footy debut at the European Championships in 2010. There has also been some strong domestic growth, with a fourth local club aligned with the West Coast Eagles to join the Zagreb Hawks, Agram Power and Velika Gorica Bombers in 2011.

Greater Western Sydney coach and high-profile international footy supporter Kevin Sheedy has come out in support of reduced-field footy in Sydney, saying that 11-a-side could be a tool for spreading footy in new territories.

In an article in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper today, Sheedy said that he'd been trialling 11-a-side footy at training sessions, and said that he envisioned it being played on soccer and rugby grounds.

With 9-a-side footy having created a niche for itself in the international scene, Sheedy's comments are sure to create some talk in the International footy community. The full article can be read here.

Further to the outcomes of the mid December Oceania Cup under 16s tournament was the positive reaction to the AFL ‘Combine’ that was run as part of the tournament schedule. On Friday December 17th, some of the best talent were tested and able to be benchmarked against AFL draftees current and recent including some of the biggest young names in the AFL.

Apart from the 'Combine', the South Pacific lads had impressed in their defeat of the Flying Boomerangs (who had earlier smashed the PNG'less Oceania side). As reported in PNG's 'the National', PNG coach Walter Yangomina was quoted saying ".. that the win that had the most meaning was the combined Pacific Island, including nine from PNG, which defeated the highly tauted Boomerangs, an ensemble Australia’s best junior talent".  “That win was massive. We got them by about five goals in the end which was a very healthy margin against an Australian side”.

Reported on the AFL website Dec 30, “Recruiters edge closer to South Pacific talent“, this story details some remarkable results from the young men tested, the equal of anything seen in Australian testing.