World Footy News

The AFL today officially launched the 2011 AFL International Cup. Recently retired Sydney Swan Brett Kirk commencing his new role as an AFL Ambassador by announcing that Sydney will be one of the host cities for the fourth AFL International Cup carnival which will be held between August 13 and August 27, 2011.

The event will see over 1000 players and officials from 24 nations participate in the fortnight long event which will be officially opened in Western Sydney with games taking place across Sydney based AFL venues including the Greater Western Sydney Giants training ground Blacktown Olympic Park and ANZ Stadium.

Australian Football in Vanuatu has been taking baby steps for a couple of years – however, over the last 12-18 months momentum has increased and the newly incorporated AFL Vanuatu is sending 5 young boys to Tonga to join the All Stars squad in the Oceania Under 16s tournament starting next week.

AFL Vanuatu has grown on the efforts of some dedicated individuals such as Justin Johnson and more recently Malcolm Thiel.

The European footy community is to host some of Australia's best young footballing talent next year, with the elite Australian Institute of Sport-Australian Football League Academy to tour.

In the past few years, the AIS-AFL squad have focussed on touring Ireland and South Africa, with a number of matches against the South African Lions.

The AIS-AFL squad will take on a European representative side, featuring local players from up to seventeen nations, in a match in London. They will also visit the brand new triple-level European Training Centre, which is due to open this December, in the Italian town of Gavirate in the province of Varese.

The tour will conclude with a visit to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day.

We'll have more information on the preparations of the European side in the near future, but in the meantime see AIS-AFL Academy to make European trip in 2011 for more details.

WFN has reported previously on footy in the Solomon Islands, where RAMSI Special Co-ordinator and former South Melbourne player, Graeme Wilson has taken charge of Solkick and footy in the Solomons - acting as Secretary of the Solomon Islands AFL Federation.

In October this year, Wilson announced that they hoped to send an Under 16 team to Tonga for the upcoming Oceania Under 16s tournament. The good news is that 24 lads are ready to head to Tonga and take up the challenge for the Solomon’s first representative footy team.

Rising West Coast Eagles star Nic Naitanui, 20, has today agreed to a new three-year contract extension, binding him to the club until the end of the 2014 season.

The emerging 201cm ruckman, one of the most exciting prospects in the AFL, had been touted as a possible target for the new Greater Western Sydney franchise, but he revealed today that he never intended leaving the club.

“I wasn’t going anywhere,” Naitanui said. “This is a young and exciting group, there is already a strong bond between everyone at the club and I want to be a part of that for the next five to 10 years.

The 2010 Coca-Cola AFLPNG Talent Camp was held over the weekend at the National Sports Institute in Goroka, Papua New Guinea.

85 kids from all over PNG, including the New Guinea Islands, the Highlands, Lae and Port Moresby gathered in the Eastern Highlands province for a weekend of gruelling physical testing.

The AFL has announced a restructure of Victorian football as part of building a stronger national organization designed to support and grow the game at all levels.

AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou said former Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson had been appointed executive chair of a new entity, AFL Victoria Ltd., to manage the AFL’s investment in the development of the game in Victoria.

Under the restructure, the new entity will become directly aligned with the AFL. Mr Demetriou said the restructure would allow the AFL to more effectively support the game in Victoria as it has with AFL Queensland and AFL NSW/ACT.

Swans defender Tadhg Kennelly has had knee surgery today. Kennelly twisted his knee in a training mishap in Ireland last week and immediately returned to Australia for assessment.

While many readers may find it unusual that an AFL player is doing this sort of unsupervised training - and in fact some players have contracts that forbid this sort of thing - it is quite common for Irish players to not only train while in Ireland but to compete in Gaelic football matches in the offseason.

Collingwood today officially listed Irishman Paul Cribbin of County Kildare with pick 81 in the Rookie Draft. Cribbin has been training with the club for some weeks after signing a two year contract with the 2010 Premiers earlier this year.

Despite rumors of the return of Cribbin's countryman Marty Clarke to Collingwood through the year this has not eventuated. But the club and Clarke have left the door open for it to possibly happen in the 2012 season.

The Sydney Swans have added to their band of foreign legion players, picking up South African-born Eugene Kruger in today’s AFL rookie draft.

Kruger, 19, has been training with the Swans and has been outstanding on the pre-season running track, blitzing the field in the 3km time trial two weeks ago. He lives in Sydney and has played Australian football seriously for less than two years, lining up for local side, East Coast Eagles.

The USAFL will be holding a training camp for the USA Revolution and USA Freedom teams in Austin, Texas the weekend of February 25-27.

The Revolution Coaches will be focusing on the preparation of players for the International Cup in Australia, in August 2011, and the camp will be used to finalize the squad for this tournament. Attendance at the camp is by invitation only. This camp is the culmination of a 2 year recruiting process implemented by Revolution Coach Matt Bishop and he is confident a very strong squad will be making the journey to Australia.

The NZ Hawks youth team has been named and will play against up to 7 countries from the Pacific region including an indigenous team from Australia, The Flying Boomerangs. The Kiwis will be looking to improve after last year's very raw squad finished 3rd, behind Nauru and surprise winners Tonga. Competition will be tough with the 2009 tournament favourite, Papua New Guinea, keen to play well after ultimately being unable to attend last time.

Once again talent scouts from the AFL clubs will be in attendance in search of potential International Scholarships from the participants aged between 14 to 17.