World Footy News

Sav Rocca did not leave the bench in his battle with Ken Parrish for the Philadelphia Eagles punting position on the weekend. Parrish took the kickoff and punting duties (Rocca did hold for field goal attempts) for the Eagles practice match, but has been released from their squad, leaving Rocca to hit his booming torpedo's and measured drop punts for the Eagles again this season.

The other former AFL footballer Chris Bryan's battle with Tim Masthay continued to run neck and neck with both punters perfoming well but with similar returns in their practice match. Three more matches are scheduled before the regular season and it may take all those matches before Green Bay make their decision.

Vanuatu is a South Pacific island nation to the east of Australia, sitting between Australia and Fiji in the vicinity of New Caledonia. It has a population of around a quarter of a million, and the capital city is Port Vila, situated on the island of Efate.

Australian Football in Vanuatu was alluded to a couple of years ago with some mention of Auskick in the capital – and as it turns out there is still a small but growing community that represents AFL Vanuatu.

Justin Johnson is the president of AFL Vanuatu and can be contacted via justininvanuatu@gmail.com from anyone wishing to get involved. WFN communicated with Justin recently.

Irish import Jamie O’Reilly will make his senior debut this weekend for the Richmond Tigers in their clash with Carlton. It comes as no surprise as O’Reilly was promoted to the senior panel a few weeks ago and has put in impressive performances all year for Coburg in the VFL.

With the Tigers well short of making the finals, coach Damien Hardwick has made good on his promise to blood as many youngsters as possible. The former Co. Down player will be the 10th Richmond player to make his AFL debut this year when he lines out at half back. O’Reilly has shown remarkable ability to learn a new sport in his first year at Tigerland having joined on a two year rookie deal in December.

Coincidentally round 20 last year was the first live match of AFL that O’Reilly ever saw. At the time he was on trial with the Tigers and round 20 will see him step out on the MCG for his debut. Speaking to the Herald Sun he could scarcely believe how far he has come in such a short time. “I was here in Round 20 last year watching Richmond play Collingwood and was sitting with all the other development players," he said. "A year on I am in the team playing Carlton at the MCG. It's been an incredible journey.”

The past decade has seen the remarkable rise of Australian football, or FootyWILD as it is marketed, in South Africa. For all of that time if there was one name, one person, who embodied the game's journey and was the sport's public face, it was Mtutuzeli Hlomela. He has been many things to many people; a friend, an inspiration, an on field leader, and an off field promoter, developer and ambassador.

Sadly for many of us who have come to know Mtutu along the journey, the 29 year old from Gauteng has departed AFL South Africa to "pursue alternative employment in Johannesburg".

His well documented career began in 1998 when he spent a year in Adelaide with the Sturt Football Club, having arrived thinking he was on a soccer scholarship, but happy to take on a strange new game. We won't recap in detail all the years in between, but over that time Mtutu rose to be South Africa's captain, coach and talent manager. He was twice selected in the World Team after International Cups. His outgoing and friendly personality saw him become a natural ambassador for the game, he met with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in this role (pictured along with Michael O'Loughlin), and he addressed the AFL Commission in 2008 putting forward the case for support for international footy. His departure will come as a shock to many.

Perhaps strangely Mtutu was unavailable for comment, but it has been said he may continue to have a small role with the game in future. An article paying tribute to his contribution to the sport is on the AFL South Africa website: Mtutu moves on

On a personal note this author would like to thank Mtutu for his friendship and contribution to the game. And I will always remember playing a "friendly" against South Africa in which Mtutu expertly appeared to fly for a contested mark but in fact was subtly shielding me from the ball to protect his team mate. As we re-gathered ourselves I commented in rough vernacular that he'd beaten me in a nice move, and he smiled and replied that it was experience. It was at that point that it was clear to me that Mtutu was from the new generation of international footballers who didn't just take up the game recently, but really had a sense and a feel for the intricacies of the sport that you only get by actually playing it over a period of time. Best wishes for your future endeavours Mtutu.

As the 2010 NFL season is about to enter into preseason games we take a look at the former Aussie rules footballers who have been trying to secure a place in the position of punter at various clubs across the US.

Ben Graham - Arizona Cardinals - after a great season in 2009 Graham is guaranteed to be the starting punter for 2010 and will be holding punts for his former Jets team mate Jay Feely.

Sav Rocca - Philadelphia Eagles - the club has brought in Ken Parrish to compete with Rocca for the punting job and it looks like the competitior might beat the incumbent for the place on the team as he can kick off, saving wear and tear on the leg of the team's kick David Akers, who turns 36 in December. If Rocca does lose the job he may get a shot elsewhere in the NFL during the season.

The AFL is planning to host the next International Cup in August 2011 in Melbourne, Sydney and probably the Gold Coast or Brisbane. For the first time in Cup history the competing nations will be split into divisions. The AFL has told potential competitors that "IC11 will be run across multiple divisions - to be determined by the final number of entrants". That suggests that if there are enough teams there could even be three separate divisions.

The 2008 tournament was originally going to have a primary group and a developing nations group, but the final numbers saw the teams merged into one competition, with some demoralising losses. With some new footy nations expected to attend in 2011 and the top squads now very accomplished, a separation is clearly needed if 150+ point blow outs (even allowing for shortened games) are to be avoided.

And in another exciting development the world's national women's sides will be welcomed with their own division. Possibilities at this early stage may include Canada's Northern Lights, the USA Freedom, Papua New Guinea (who have been successful with girls competing in Queensland), South Africa (which has had girls playing as part of FootyWILD) and Ireland, which has recently been trying to begin a women's league. No word yet as to whether Australia would field a side, although that seems unlikely at this stage.

It seems highly likely that 2011 will see a record number of teams competing across men's, women's and in three different cities across Australia's east coast.

The Australian Football League has written to Australian football playing nations outlining its preliminary plans to stage the fourth Australian Football International Cup across three Australian states. They have called for nominations by Friday 27th August 2010.

The initial schedule suggests the welcoming evening will be in Melbourne (Victoria) on Saturday 6th August 2011, with two rounds of matches at Royal Park (Sunday 7th August and Wednesday 10th August).

The tournament would then move to Sydney (NSW) for two rounds (Sunday 14th August and Wednesday 17th August), including at Blacktown, home of the 18th AFL club, currently called Greater Western Sydney.

The finals (5th round) would then be played on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane (both in southeast Queensland), possibly in the vicinity of the AFL's 17th club the Gold Coast Suns, on Saturday 20th August, with a closing ceremony the following day.

Quarter-by-quarter scores from the Finals of the European Championship in Australian Football, courtesy of The Footy Record and the EC2010 organizing committee, updated as close to live as we can manage!

7th Place Playoff

5th Place Playoff

3rd Place Playoff

Gold Medal Playoff

The Austin Crows players and fans participated in there second annual Habitat for Humanity Build Day on a hot July summer Saturday. Habitat for Humanity is a Christian based non-profit organization that organizes the donation of materials, man power and expertise to build homes for families in need.

The house in south east Austin was in its 2nd day of construction. The Crows duties for the day included, pre-build complaining about how hot it was, commenting on the amount of sunscreen on Blake's face and plenty of trips to the water station. The main duties included squaring up the house by bracing it (as the walls had been raised on the 1st day of construction), wrapping the house with tar paper and insulation, lifting the trusses on to the roof and securing them in place, and then more complaining about how hot it was.

Last night the Irish Warriors showed exactly why they are favourites to take out the European Championships, with a clinical demolition of hosts Sweden: Sweden 2.4 (16) to Ireland 13.21 (99).

A crowd of around 400 turned up to Limhamnsfältet in Malmö to watch the home nation play arguably the best team in Europe in what was effectively a semi-final for the tournament.

Despite kicking against the wind in the first quarter, the Irish got an early lead through goals from Maghnus Breathnach and Rob Armstrong. Very little separated the two sides in terms of possession, however Sweden’s inability to convert their chances cost them. Lars Hagberg and Mattias Fagersson both missed set shots before Leo Nilsson kicked a goal from open play.

Just before quarter time, Ireland’s big forward Breathnach took a mark on the edge of the goal square to kick his second and give the Warriors a 13-point lead.

In the second quarter Sweden looked solid in defence and held out well against constant waves of attack from an Irish side now kicking with the wind. However, despite having plenty of possession, Sweden couldn’t push into their own forward fifty, and failed to score all quarter. The Irish were able to extend their lead through goals from John Tierney and a snap shot from Vincent Manning.

This report courtesy of the EC2010 organisers, photos by Morten Christensen.

With a place in the European Championships grand final on the line, the highly fancied Great Britain team took on host nation Denmark at Farum, in warm, sultry conditions in front of 350 spectators.

Those who came witnessed a hard contest played in good spirit, as has been the norm in these inaugural European championships.

Denmark opened their account early with goals to Secher and Ottesen and took a slight 7 point lead into the first break. In the secord term, the Danes started to use the width of the field to great effect which lead to a couple of mark-and-goals by dominant forwards Norlander and Ottesen.

With everything on the line, Great Britain came out focused in the third quarter and locked the ball in their own attacking half for long periods. This resulted in goals to Tarn and Todd, while keeping the locals to a single point.

Taking a slim 9 point lead into the final quarter and with everything to play for, Denmark lifted a gear with a fine left footed running goal to World XVIII representative Mathias Biron and two quick goals to Norlander thereby sealing the victory.

Despite the tenacity and defensive pressure shown by Great Britain, Denmark displayed great skill and poise to finish comfortable winners, and now head to Saturday's final against tournament favourites Ireland. Great Britain will take on host nation Sweden in the 3rd place play-off game.

This report courtesy of the EC2010 organising committee.

In the third round of the EC2010 held on Thursday, August 5th, Iceland took on Finland in the first match of the day at Farum, Denmark in steamy conditions in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 100 spectators.

After a slow start from both teams, the game lifted in tempo as the running players from both teams started to find time and space out on the flanks, resulting in some exciting and skillful passages of play.

In the second quarter, Iceland started brightly with some inside 50 mark and goals from Palli Finnsson and Bjarni Sigurjonsson, however Mika Kupila scored two quick goals to keep the Finns within touch at the main break.

After half time, Finland continued to pile on the tackle pressure on the key Icelandic playmakers and started to dominate possession, thanks to the hard ball getters Jani Saarinen, Fernando Leon and Jukka Reiman.

In the final quarter, Iceland showed its class with a brace of goals to Pavel Velikov and veteran Palli Finnson to seemingly put the game beyond Finland. In response, the Finns replied with late goals to Juho Leino and Jusso Timosaari to keep the game within reach and set up for an exciting conclusion.

However, it was not to be for Finland as Iceland hung on to record its first ever victory in full-format footy, setting them up for a juicy 5th place classification playoff against Croatia in Malmö, Sweden on Saturday.

This report courtesy of the EC2010 organising committee.