World Footy News

A very excited Lachlan Keating of the Canterbury Australian Football League and the Christchurch Bulldogs provided this story to WFN....

For the first time in history the Christchurch Bulldogs met the Eastern Blues in a grand final. The Bulldogs were premiers in 2009 and the Blues were champions from 2006 - 2008 and with both teams featuring several players with high-level experience the scene was set for a torrid battle.

Donovan “Donny” Epa, aged 25 years, a member of Seaford’s triple Premiership team 2007-2009 has died as a result of a tragic accident.

Of Samoan background, Epa was originally from New Zealand and didn’t take up Aussie rules until he was 18.

In October 2008, the Western Bulldogs announced that they had signed two Fijian teenagers to the International Scholarship scheme. Inoke Ratu then 19, and Solomon Loki then 16 had impressed at trials conducted in Lavaca and Suva. Alas, Fijitimes reported recently that after 2 years, that the Bulldogs have declined to extend their ‘contracts’.

Australian physical education teacher Warwick Kain, formed a footy team a couple of months ago, and after a few practices and a game against some University of Otago students, has made the 4 hour trip to Christchurch and defeated the growing stronghold of schoolboy footy in Canterbury, St Bede’s School. Not only that, but 6 of the team have made the NZ U 16 team and are off to Tonga!

In preparation for the upcoming Oceania Cup (Youth) to be held in Tonga in December, and after the David Rodan Cup, Fiji has named a pretty large 39 member squad.

The squad is as follows :

We've seen the inaugural European Championships, and each year North America has the US versus Canada. Now a senior Oceania Cup will be played in Auckland from November 12th to November 17th. Hosts the New Zealand Hawks will play against the inexperienced Tonga, traditional footy rivals Papua New Guinea and an exciting Oceania Allstars team.

New Zealand's initial selections for the Oceania Cup took place in September 2009 shortly after the Senior National Provincial Championships held in Auckland - part of long and steady build up to the tournament.

In perhaps one of the most surprising results of the international football year Chile's Los Santos (The Saints) have defeated the touring Convicts side in Santiago, inflicting possibly only their second loss (the first in 2007 to the South African national side in Soweto).

It's difficult to gauge the standard of play in South America given that there are few clubs and until now no cross-over matches against teams from other continents. And although the Convicts is a tourist group of Australian footballers which changes every year, they normally provide a good contest that is more than enough to defeat the locals. Of course the calibre of any particular tour party is unknown and these matches are friendlies so you can't be sure how determined to win each team was, and the South Americans appeared to have some expat-Aussie assistance, but still, it was obviously a fine victory for the locals and should provide them with confidence and motivation to keep growing the game moving forward.

¡Felicidades a todos en Los Santos!

The Victorian Amateur Football Association U18s touring side were successful in retaining the Trans Tasman Challenge in a repeat performance from last year’s inaugural event.

The standard was a step up from last year’s clashes and progression was evident, particularly through the Under 20 National Provincial Championships, which are now part of the New Zealand football calendar every March.

The NZ Hawks Under 20 team contained four players who have graduated from Under 16 ranks including Hawthorn signing, and Trent Croad Scholarship holder, Kurt Heatherley.

WFN has now completed its Country Snapshots section for Asia.

This finalises our Snapshots, although they will always need ongoing updates.

The other completed regions are Africa, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East and North, Central and South America. They are available from the pulldown menu above titled Countries.

As always, let us know if there are any significant errors or omissions. We do realise that the Census data (2004) is well out of date, and there is some more recent data available. We'll hopefully address that at the end of the year.

Hawthorn Football Club has recently held talent testing days in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Athletes have been invited to attend as a result of school visits and the Hawks Cup Secondary School competitions.

Hawthorn FC had Graham Wright (East Coast Recruiting Manager) and Chris Pelchen (General Manager Player Personnel and Strategy) in attendance whilst Andrew Crighton, Secondary School and Talent Identification Officer for AFL New Zealand, was at all venues.

For those wondering what an initial screening such as this comprises here is a run down for each of the NZ sessions:-

The AFL’s Professional Approach to Developing European Footy

After 21 years of Australian Football in Europe, now that the game has reached its traditional ‘majority’, the AFL has adopted a professional approach to conquering Europe. The formation of the European Australian Football Association in January 2010 has been followed by an AFL-supported appointment to the Association. Peter Romaniw (pictured) has been selected, and now commenced work, as European Regional Manager.

The AFL has now developed a resource-committed approach to game development of the Australian game in a continent which already has Australian football from Helsinki in the north to Madrid in the west, further south to Milan and to Prague in the east. No longer is Europe forgotten due to either traditional connections or exotic fantasies.

Australia has won the two Test International Rules series against Ireland after a 55-52 victory in the second Test at Croke Park Dublin before a 61,000 crowd.

After an attacking start from the Irish, scoring the first 4 points, the second Test for the Cormack Cormac McAnallen Cup looked like a regulation game for the fast, ball controlling and ball using Australian side. Several small and speedy players such as Bryce Gibbs and Eddie Betts of Carlton, all of whom star in the AFL when there is less pressure, and the similar stars in Collingwood’s Dane Swan and St Kilda’s Lee Montagna, and the marking and long kicking for goal of Brad Green, who went on to kick 16 points, were the difference.

However, the Irish drew closer in the third quarter, with an "under" (goal) reducing the difference to 10 points (48-38) at the break.