World Footy News

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.

In a Grand Final re-match from last season, the perennial Auckland AFL champions, University Blues, squared off against last year’s opponent, the Waitakere Magpies. Despite many years in the AAFL competition Waitakere had yet to win a flag but with the Club supplying a large contingent to the Senior NZ Hawks in recent years it has only been a matter of time.

These were 2010’s top two teams. One win each during this season’s regular rounds, plus a better for and against percentage, gave Waitakere top spot on the ladder and bragging rights over Uni entering the finals. However when both teams met again in the semi finals the Blues won very well and deservedly went straight through to the grand final, the Magpies had to pick themselves up to play against North Shore in the preliminary final in a week. A great win over North Shores Tigers saw the Waitakere Magpies through to another grand final against the foe.

The AFL today announced the creation of a state-league based knockout competition from 2011 onwards -- the FOXTEL Cup -- which will showcase the quality of state league football across the country.

AFL General Manager National and International Development David Matthews said the AFL had now concluded all arrangements for the new competition, in partnership with FOX SPORTS, which will bring 16 teams from the various state leagues across the country to play in a unique knockout competition which will be televised exclusively by FOX SPORTS and supported by naming rights sponsor FOXTEL.

RICHMOND coach Damien ‘Dimma’ Hardwick looked at his playing list last week as he decided who would play for the Tiges at Alice Springs against the Indigenous All Stars (later cancelled due to cyclone Yasi), and there was one player he really wanted to let loose.

As recently covered on WFN, two of PNG’s young champs are international rookie listed by the Tigers, and have been training at Punt Road. Gideon Simon and Nathan Malbak, a pair of 16-year-olds, were with the Tigers for just a week. So impressive had Simon been that Hardwick felt he was ready to mix it with some of the league's best.

Read Eye of the Tiger on PNG for more.