World Footy News

The following was written by Peter Schwab and comes to us courtesy of US Footy News

I have just returned from a visit to the US with my eldest son William where amongst the sites of New York, an NFL game in Philadelphia and an ice hockey match in Washington where we witnessed one of the game’s current greats Alex Ovechkin play, we also had the opportunity to assist at a local Auskick in Washington DC.

Chris is a quietly spoken man with a passion for the game and a bigger passion to introduce it to the local children. His 10 year old son CJ is also a motivating factor for Chris to keep the game as strong as he can in a foreign environment, because it allows CJ the opportunity to learn and play the game.

Over the last decade Australian football has taken big strides in laying down some roots internationally. Many of those started off as tiny projects to use footy to bring some fun to poor communities; some such projects remain at that scale and whilst never likely to make big headlines are great initiatives as they are. One current program is being run by expat Aussie Simon Corcoran in a remote area of Peru.

worldfootynews.com had a chat to Simon about the people and the footy there and where his dreams would see it all go.

Kevin Sheedy and his GWS Giants are continuing their quest to uncover talent of African origin. A recent story revealed Sheedy checking out tall talent at the Sudanese Australian basketball championships at Cambridge Park in western Sydney, and another story focussed on the athleticism and football ability of youngster Zarchariah Sesay, originally from Sierra Leone.

Sheedy also reiterated what he has often stated, which is his desire (and now intent) to chase US basketball talent. "Some 4500 basketballers go through the college system in America but only about 60 get drafted".

With the backing of his new club it will be intriguing to see the ethnic makeup of the GWS Giants in their first few years in the AFL. It could just become the sport's greatest advertisement for enticing future generations of migrants to the game, not to mention the sport's slowly growing international following.

Sketchy details have come to hand that show as expected that PNG have taken out 1st place. However, the other matches have provided an ordering that probably was not to be expected heading into the tournament.

At the time, the two undefeated sides, PNG and Tonga met on Saturday in the last of the pool matches. PNG won and won convincingly, restricting Tonga to just one goal whilst accumulating 7 of their own. Early reports indicated that the First Place final was much closer with Tonga improving their offensive effort, but the final scores we've received since then show that PNG was still a long way ahead of the field.

PNG 8.5 (45) def Tonga 1.1 (7)

In the 3rd place playoff - Fiji maintained the tournament form by nudging out Nauru.

Fiji (35) def Nauru (25)

For Fiji, Jeffrey Pauli was awarded "player of the tournament" by Fiji Power coaching staff.

In the final match, the 5th place play off it appears as though tournament debutant, the Solomon Islands have reversed the earlier result and managed to get up over the more fancied New Zealand. WFN is still awaiting scores for this match.

Also, details have been hard to come across for Saturday morning's 2nd outing of the Flying Boomerangs. Todays News Ltd is running a story on Andrew McLeod that states :

The Boomerangs easily defeated an Oceania team last week but were outmuscled by a bigger and older South Pacific representative team on Saturday.

The AFL's recently announced Champions League will provide the top teams from across Australian states (below the AFL) the chance to compete before a national TV audience on Foxtel, albeit given Foxtel's reduced market penetration compared with free-to-air TV.

But sadly for the concept's first year (2011) one of the major competing leagues will instead put forth its bottom clubs for the contest. The SANFL agreed to the Champions League but only on the grounds that it would offer three spots to its clubs, starting from the top finishers in 2010, but would not force them to play. A cascade of declined offers followed, resulting in South Australia likely to field 3 of its 4 bottom sides, from its 9 club competition.

The rebuff was expected, as most of the SANFL clubs had made it clear that the likely prize money on offer was inadequate and there were issues with clashing sponsors, and the last thing vulnerable state league sides can afford is to make a loss from such a venture. With SANFL player payments thought to be higher than most other state leagues outside of the AFL the requirements to satisfy SANFL clubs is higher. Just as important was that the clubs of course will continue to focus, as they have for over 130 years, on winning the local premiership. By sacrificing their byes during the season they would place themselves at a disadvantage compared with their local rivals - playing 3 or 4 extra games in a season, plus travel, is a large additional load. There is also a risk that the telecast of matches would be in direct competition with the state league coverage on ABC TV.

Matches on Saturday, Day 5 of the AFL Under 16s Oceania Cup began with Fiji Power up against New Zealand at 1pm, followed by Nauru vs Solomon Islands and finally PNG vs Tonga in the top of the table clash, the President's XVIII having the bye.

This report is based exclusively from the AFL Fiji press release for Day 5. Full credit to the professionalism and organisation shown by the folk from AFL Fiji. Again, Dr Robert Wolfgramm (AFL Fiji chairman) is presenting a fine public image AFL Fiji.

A little more of the Pacific region print media coverage of the Oceania Cup Under 16 tournaments nearing its conclusion on Sunday in Tonga. Some further offerings from the Fijian media as well as from PNG.

The professionalism displayed in particular by AFL Fiji, releasing daily press releases has made the job far easier for their ‘home’ press. This has set a standard in the region.

Three players from Vanuatu are competing in the Oceania U16 Championships in Tonga. This video news story is from TBV (Vanuatu's local TV) news and sports show. Footage is of a 'scratch match' in Port Vila on 20th November 2010.

The AFL today said it would proceed with the creation of a state-league based knockout competition from 2011 onwards, which will showcase the quality of state league football across the country.

AFL General Manager National and International Development David Matthews said the AFL was intending to develop a new competition which would invite 16 teams from the various state leagues across the country to play in a knockout competition.

All state league competitions confirmed their interest to the AFL this week in being part of the competition, with invitations to teams within each league based on ladder position and the availability of the club to compete.

Day 4 of the Oceania Cup Tournament currently underway in Tonga has wrapped up, with 3 games played this afternoon. The day started with a combination of AFL combine, clinics and skills sessions.

The afternoon progressed with PNG and Tonga asserting themselves as the two undefeated sides heading into Day 5, with their clash tomorrow likely to be the Grand Final preview.

Whilst the Fijian news outlets have been providing almost wall to wall coverage of their boys in Tonga, back in Australia – there’s been barely a ripple. Today that’s changed with the News Ltd papers carrying features on Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau.

In 2008 it looked like it would be Collingwood that would be heading to Ireland to play an Irish club in International Rules, but now Melbourne could be the ones to make it happen. All on the back of the famous life and times of the most incredible story in Australian rules footy.

Melbourne’s President Jim Stynes, Brownlow medallist and the most successful convert to our game has had a high profile battle with cancer in recent times. He has managed to do great things for his former club and for so many in the community in Australia.