World Footy News

Two weeks ago the Brisbane Lions were defeated by the Melbourne Demons in the AFL clash in Shanghai for the Kaspersky Cup - see Jurrah lights up China match. The curtain raiser, also at Jiangwan Stadium, saw a Japanese Under 21 side take on China in a 9-a-side match. It was a great opportunity for the Japanese to give their younger players a taste of travel for the Samurai, whilst giving AFL China a chance to begin building a national squad.

Even though it was a developmental list it was not surprising that Japan ran away with the match. Wingman Ohashi provided the opening goal, and Samurais midfielders led by Tada, Nakamura, and Ichinose dominated the centre. Centre half forward Ken Sato, who spent 6 weeks at Box Hill North in Victoria as a scholarship player this year, was unstoppable ending up with 8 marks and 3 goals. Hiroki Ichinose also added 3 goals to his superb with 20 disposals. For China the highlight must have been the third quarter goal to Shao Lei.

Unfortunately Brisbane has not renewed the rookie listing for young Japanese-Australian Sean Yoshiura. The history of dropped rookies means it seems unlikely that the 19 year old will be picked up by another AFL club in the near future, and will have to prove himself at state league level to get another AFL chance.

Yoshiura, who was born and initially raised in Japan, was rookie listed at the end of 2009. Ideally he would have become a role model for Asian-Australian players and indeed internationals such as those playing in AFL Japan.

The Canterbury Cobras have won New Zealand's Senior National Provincial Championships (NPC) for the first time in the League’s history.

The tournament was played at Westminster Park Christchurch on the 23/24 October. The competition was blessed with brilliant weather and four committed teams battling out national honours. Early results on Saturday and Sunday resulted in the Canterbury and Auckland match providing the tournament winner.

Effective from October 1st this year, the Australian Sports Commission has launched its Illicit Drugs in Sport Policy (PDF available here). It’s come with little fanfare. The policy will apply to AIS Athlete Scholarship Holders, and Athlete Support Personnel and employees and Board Members of the ASC, as well as anyone else who agrees to be bound by the policy. What is most interesting about this policy however, is the number of strikes. Effectively, a 3-strike policy with a 4th strike resulting in termination of AIS scholarship. Given the broad public debate that has surrounded the AFL and its 3 strikes policy, it’s astounding that this piece of news effectively went through to the keeper.

The most successful Aussie Rules junior development program in North America has undertaken another community initiative. For the first time since the North Delta Junior AFL was formed in 2003 they were able to award two scholarships to graduating players who were planning on attending post secondary school. As part of their mission statement to be good citizens in the community, the British Columbia (Canada) based organisation raised funds for the scholarships.

All players who were eligible for the scholarships were asked to write a letter to the NDJAFL committee stating how footy had affected them and how they had contributed to the league and planned to give back to younger players. From these submissions the two recipients were chosen.

The AFL has announced the fixture for the 2011 AFL NAB Cup, the pre-season tournament leading into the main season. As expected the AFL have made some major changes to allow 18 teams to compete and possibly aimed at combating waning interest in the pre-season tournament.

The Cup will see the debut at AFL level of 17th team the Gold Coast Suns, whilst the 18th club, currently known as Greater Western Sydney, will also debut, although their full AFL arrival is not until 2012. Sadly for Australian fans, the historic debut of both clubs will only be available on pay television station Foxtel - something likely to be an increasing occurrence under the next TV rights agreement and likely relaxation of anti-siphoning laws by the Federal Government.

AFL Chief Operating Officer Gillon McLachlan announced the six divisions for round one of the revised 2011 competition, where the AFL’s 18 clubs will be placed in six pools.

There's an expectation in Australian football that with the right encouragement there will be quite a few AFL players coming from Australia's growing ethnically African community. Such players are likely to provide role models for further recruits, including directly from Africa itself, such as up and coming South African players.

Another increasing trend is for AFL clubs to recognise that there is mature talent in the state leagues and that not being drafted as an 18 year old should not be the end of a player's AFL career prospects. This has been encouraged by recent successes including the stellar form in 2010 of Michael Barlow at Fremantle, and the good form of James Podsiadly at Geelong, both having been plucked from the VFL. Of course the WA and SA clubs have long kept a closer eye on their local leagues, Adelaide in particular using the rookie list with SANFL players to excellent effect for many years and more recently Fremantle loading up on WAFL and VFL players (all these players are open to all clubs but some seem to focus more closely on them).

Tendai Mzungu meets both the above criteria. The 24 year old had an excellent WAFL season for the Perth Demons and has been signed by Fremantle via a trade week deal with the new Gold Coast club (whose entry rules allowed them to pre-list some players and on-trade them for a draft pick). The "dashing defender" can be seen below in action on two Youtube clips. It appears he has a mixed background, with some Eastern African heritage. Apparently he has was born in Melbourne to a Zimbabwean father and Perth mother, and although playing Aussie Rules for a long time, didn't even nominate for the AFL Draft until he was 22, according to Meet Freo's draft dodger.

Further to our story David Rodan Cup 2010 run and won, AFL Asia Pacific manager Andrew Cadzow has advised that even more players than anticipated turned up to the Fijian tournament, with 130 players spread across 8 teams. Cadzow predicts, "They will be strong at the Oceania Cup (youth) and look very likely to be in a good position for a senior squad (for the International Cup) next year". In fact as many as 168 boys registered, from across 29 schools, with the event supported by the Rodan family, Sportsworld, Coca-Cola, the Fiji Police Band, and numerous locals who helped out such as providing lunch for all the players.

Below are photos by Dallas Swinstead, by permission of the Fiji Times, and Dylan Wolfgramm, with thanks to Dr Robert Wolfgramm.

INTERNATIONAL RULES

First Test: Australia 47 (0-14-5) d. Ireland 40 (1-8-10) at Gaelic Grounds Limerick, Saturday 23rd October

Ireland 0.2.3 (9) 0.3.7 (16) 0.5.7 (22) 1.8.10 (40)
Australia 0.4.0 (12) 0.7.0 (21) 0.10.2 (32) 0.14.5 (47)

Crowd: 30,117

Mick Malthouse, coach of the Australian International Rules team knew that the long arms of Essendon full back Dustin Fletcher would make the difference when it came to defending the goal net against a six pointer. The ageless footballer known at Essendon as Mr Gadget and now well into his 30s only let one 'under' goal through after a brilliant running move by Bernard Brogan in the last quarter.

Fletcher challenged the GAA team's scoring capacity in the first Test at Limerick, Australia winning 47 to 40, while other myths remain unchallenged. Another key aspect was Ireland's inability to clear the ball from defence, with Mick Malthouse's side applying a full defensive press, the modern day flood now popular with several AFL clubs. As a result, many Australian scores were quickly followed by more.

The following is a 2010 update on Aussie Rules progress in Otago, in the south of New Zealand's south island, one of football's frontier regions. Courtesy of Nathan Rose.

Greetings from the deep south!

The Otago Aussie Rules scene has experienced steady growth since its inception in late 2007. Our biggest challenge is in finding opposition – as the Otago ‘Riot’ is the only organised team based in Dunedin, our guys are forced to do a lot of travel to get a game. We are currently exploring options for regular football, including inclusion in the Canterbury AFL, or forming new teams in Dunedin, as the current situation means we only play on occasional weekends against willing opponents on an ad-hoc basis – although, as any of the players will tell you, the road trips are a lot of fun!

The 2010 David Rodan Cup for Secondary Schools took place on Saturday October 23. http://FijiLive.com reports that the ‘Hawks’ squad won the event. However, as per the link the Grand Final score is written as Tigers 48-12 Hawks. However I’m assuming that to be a typo.

The NZAFL Championships are to be held in Christchurch on today, October 23rd and tomorrow October 24th at Westminster Park. Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington will be competing for the Senior Championship whilst the Victorian Amateur (VAFA) U18’s will head over from Australia to play two games against the NZ Hawks U20 side.

Read on for information on the draw and the competing Leagues.