World Footy News

The 2010 AFLPNG Coca-Cola Junior National Championships has wrapped up in Lae with the Highlands Province taking home the coveted Championship Shield. The 3-day tournament was a concoction of great football, loud music and tremendous participation by all players, officials, families and friends. Under 13, 15 & 17 Boys and Under 15 Girls came in from four regions across PNG to participate in the championships. The Highland Raiders, The Southern Sharks, The Northern Thunder and the NGI Stingrays congregated on the lawns of Igam Barracks to battle for the championship.

Emmaus Wartova recently played a great game in the AFL Queensland Grand Final. Playing for the Labrador Tigers against Morningside Panthers his team were right in it until a stunning last quarter blitz reaped back-to-back premierships for the proud Panthers at Giffin Park. Former Brisbane Lions player and Labrador star Tim Notting also had a game to remember with 4 goals.

An exciting feature of the Kaspersky Cup AFL match between Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions is that China will take on a development squad from Japan in the curtain raiser. It's fair to say there's long been a strong rivalry between these two countries and not only does the proximity give China an obvious local opponent, it also could help give the Japanese league a boost.

Japan are sending an Under 21 team for the match, which should provide a good 9-a-side contest. Japan's full squad are ranked 14th in our unofficial world rankings, with China notionally one spot ahead, but not yet playing enough games to qualify. The Samurai's are bringing 13 players and 5 officials. China's players will be roughly 50-50 from Beijing and Shanghai.

Two days prior to the match, which is part of the World Expo, the AFL will stage its first ever "Asia Combine" (using the new description the AFL is using for draft camp style sessions). This will be held at Shanghai University of Sport (very close to Jiangwan Stadium) and will have a number of staff present with AFL high performance experience. There will be testing of athletes and a number of drills and activities aimed at gaining further experience in Australian Football. All participants of the curtain raiser match have been encouraged to attend.

Division I continued to be tight and close on Day 2 with the New York Magpies prevailing by 21 points in the final. The Mapgies also won Division IV, while Calgary dominated Division II and Austin's Division III title capped off a great tournament for the Texan teams. In the Women's Division the only stand alone team in Denver took out the Championship.

Division I Championship Denver Bulldogs 1.1.7 vs New York Magpies 4.4.28
Division II Championship Final: Minnesota 5.1.31 vs Calgary 11.8.74
Division III Championship Final: Florida United 2.5.17 vs Austin Crows 4.4.28
Division IV Championship Final: NY Magpies 13.4.82 vs Denver/Kansas 0.3.3
Women's Championship Final: Denver 3.1.19 vs Calgary/Montreal 2.6.18

The Melbourne Football Club will embark on a 14-day tour of China, highlighted by The Kaspersky Cup Shanghai Showdown match between The Demons and the Brisbane Lions at Jiangwan Stadium on Sunday.

The Club will depart Melbourne on Sunday October 10 returning on Saturday 23. The touring party of 130 includes the full playing list, football department and all administration staff. This is believed to be the biggest ever overseas trip conducted by an AFL club. Melbourne’s key destinations include Moganshan, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

With the temperature over 30 degrees celcius, hydration and sunblock were the buzzwords of the day. Players were thankful for the irrigation system that has been installed since the previous Nationals making the ground conditions good for footy. Sunday looks like it could be even warmer, set to reach 33 degrees celcius.

New York, Denver and Golden Gate leading the way in Division1 winning both their games. All matches appear to have been fairly close affairs with 35 points being the biggest margin.

Calgary and Dallas look to be dominating Divison 2, along with Minnesota and Chicago who are also unbeaten.

The United States Australian Football League will kick off its 2010 National Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky in the next hour with matches taking place over this weekend.

The popular event is the biggest Australian Football tournament anywhere in the world, and attracts more than 1,000 players, officials and coaching staff, with a total of 32 men’s teams spread across four divisions, as well as 6 women’s teams representing over a dozen cities across the USA and Canada. The tournament in Louisville, Kentucky will also features juniors exhibition clinics and games, Under 23 and women’s development seminars, umpires clinics, a national administrators conference and the USAFL’s Annual General Meeting.

The tournament will be held at Louisville Soccer Park (Champions Park) in Louisville, Kentucky, at 2050 RIVER RUN ROAD (just off Zorn Avenue at I-71).

The AFL today named the Australian squad for the upcoming two-Test series against Ireland for the 2010 International Rules Series. The Australian team, to be coached by Michael Malthouse, will gather in Melbourne next Friday, October 15, before leaving for Ireland on Saturday October 16. Gary Ablett Jnr had previously said he was keen to play but was reported to have withdrawn his availablility this week.

The first Test will be played at Limerick on Saturday October 23 and the second Test will be played at Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday October 30. The squad is: Todd Banfield (Brisbane Lions), Eddie Betts (Carlton), Matthew Boyd (Western Bulldogs), Daniel Cross (Western Bulldogs), Patrick Dangerfield (Adelaide Crows), Paul Duffield (Fremantle),

Woodside Energy, one of Australia’s major energy exporters to Asia, has agreed to become a major sponsor of the Australian Football League’s first ever match in China. Woodside will be an associate partner of the Kaspersky Cup, AFL Shanghai Showdown between Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions, which will be played at the Jiangwan Sports Centre in Shanghai on Sunday, October 17.

Woodside Senior Vice President, Corporate, Tina Thomas, said the match provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the company’s support for Australian football in one of its major customer countries. Since 2006 Woodside has been exporting liquefied natural gas to China from the North West Shelf Venture under a 25-year contract.

The company, which has an office in Beijing, is in discussions with Chinese customers about potential supplies from Woodside’s wider portfolio of projects and developments.

Back in late August WFN told you about Andrew Cadzow having been in Fiji helping with preparations for the David Rodan Cup.

AFL South Africa has once again staged its national championships, then followed up with a friendly against the touring Australian Amateur Football Council's Under 23 side, drawn from the amateur leagues in Victoria, SA, WA and leagues in Tasmania. This initiative has seen the Aussies doing the kind of South African tours we've seen in the past, but really getting heavily involved in teaching the up and coming Lions players, especially in an area considered lacking, coaching of team tactics.

The third annual footyWILD National Championships culminated with a victory to the home Province Western Cape Magpies over the Gauteng Blues in a tough encounter at Khayelitsha Cricket Ground on Friday afternoon (Oct 1). Besides the match at Khayelitsha Cricket Oval, Cape Town, the AAFC 13 day tour was also scheduled to include an exhibition match at Monash University, Johannesburg, on Wednesday October 6 . It has been an all-round effort, with support from the AFL, the AAFC member states, government and a state league contribution with the WAFL’s Community Development Manager Cameron Agnew outstanding in an umpiring education role throughout.

The USAFL has announced seedings for the 2010 USAFL tournament to be played this weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. Division 1 of the tournament is split into two groups and Chris Adams from US Footy News reviews the seasons of the teams competing in that division to give us the form of each going in.

The number one seed in Group A is the Denver Bulldogs. Denver finished the season with a record of 5-0. While they had some good wins on the road, particularly the recent tournament against Boston. Their only win against a ranked team came against Chicago United at home. That said, Denver is a 7-time National Championship winner and always brings their A-game to Nationals. In 2009 they dominated the ruck with former AFL Fremantle Docker Brendon Feddema, they were also assisted by the great work off half-back by the Championship game MVP Dom Kennedy.