World Footy News

The Australian Football League has been shortlisted for the International Beyond Sport Awards 2010, for recognition of its Multicultural Programs, with winners to be announced at the Beyond Sport Summit in Chicago in September.

The AFL’s Multicultural Program is one of three projects shortlisted under Sport Federation or Governing Body of the Year category, and was selected from over 350 entries from more than 115 countries which submitted applications to this year’s awards. The other two projects are from the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the USA and the Namibia Football Association.

Beyond Sport, is a global organisation that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to drive positive social change across the world. The Beyond Sport Awards program provides support worth $1 million annually to projects across the world that use sport to address issues within their communities.

The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland has expanded from five teams to eight this season, and as a result the league is enjoying its most competitive season yet.

The Belfast Redbacks and the Clare Crows have returned, having previously been in the league, while the Galway-based Midwest Magpies are a brand new club.

Worldfootynews.com will be profiling all three new clubs in the coming days, beginning with Belfast.

The Croatian Knights have been an up-and-coming power of European footy in recent years, taking the silver on debut at the 9-a-side 2008 EU Cup in Hamburg, and then picking up the bronze at the 2009 event in front of a home crowd in Samobor, near the Croatian capital Zagreb.

This year sees the Knights step up to playing full-field footy for the first time, in the inaugural 16-a-side European Championships being held in Denmark and Sweden next month.

Croatian footy pioneer Kolja Koracak is managing the squad, which will consist of 20 players. "We selected from the pool of 32 players. At the end some got injured, some couldn't come because of work and other reasons, and so our list was easy to put together. We'll be taking 20 players to Sweden and Denmark, including 5 rookies." All three domestic clubs, the Zagreb Hawks, Agram Power and Velika Gorica Bombers, are represented in the national team.

Footy in Croatia has been helped along by the support of the AFL's Hawthorn Football Club, a fact reflected in the nation's first club being dubbed the Zagreb Hawks. The Hawthorn connection is also evident in Kolja's assessment of his team's stars, saying "Tomislav Cvetko is Buddy Franklin, Josip Kravar is Sam Mitchell, and Davor Deranja is Luke Hodge. 'nough said!"

At 44 years of age, Ante Loncar was set to be the squad's oldest member, but had to pull out. His 18 year old son Adam Loncar will be there however, being the youngest representative for the Knights in 2010. All squad members are Croatian citizens and grew up in Croatia, although Adam Loncar and Toni Grguric were born in Australia.

Koracak says the squad will be camping out in Denmark, with a lack of sponsors leaving a very tight travel budget. "The Croatian national team will sleep in tents in camp, because of lack of support from the country and beyond, even though this week we got so much press space after winning the tournament in Italy!"

With a reputation to uphold as a strong contender on the European stage, and a long history of Croatian champions in the AFL, the Knights will be eager to prove they can match it with all comers.

Last Saturday Division Two of the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships completed with Tasmania finishing top on 3 wins - 0 losses, followed by Queensland on 2 - 1, NSW/ACT on 2 - 1, the Northern Territory 1 - 2, South Pacific 1 - 2 and the World XVIII 0 - 3.

Kane Clark (from Lebanon, now living in NSW) was named the World XVIII's most valuable player and Fijian Dylan Wolfgramm was named best for the South Pacific.

Official results below...

On July 31st, the Cambodian Cobras will host the Vietnam Swans in Phnom Penh, in what the new Cobras hope will be the beginnings of a regular Cambodian presence on the Asian footy circuit.

Wearing Adelaide Crows jumpers with an added Cobra logo, the new club is the third team to kick the footy in Cambodia, after the Cambodia Crocs and Cambodia Kangas formed for tournaments in the past.

The Swans are reportedly excited to help their neighbours to help generate the interest and motivation at the new club, as they have also done in their friendly rivalry with the Lao Elephants.

The 2010 Asian Championships will this year be held in China for the first time, kicking off in Shanghai on October 16th in conjunction with the Melbourne vs Brisbane AFL exhibition match at the World Expo. League CEO Andrew Demetriou will be in attendance and meeting with all the Asian footy clubs at the Championships.

For more information, visit the Vietnam Swans website.

The final round of the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships Division Two are being played today in Western Sydney. Updates will be added here as they become available.

Match 1

Tasmania 11.10 (76) defeated Queensland 8.5 (53) to win the Division Two title.

Match 2

Approximately half time - Northern Territory 12.3 (75) lead South Pacific 3.4 (22).

Approximately 3/4 time - 7 goal quarter to South Pacific but NT still lead by about 4 goals.

Full time - Northern Territory 17.14 (116) defeated South Pacific 12.4 (76)

Match 3

NSW/ACT 20.9 (129) defeated World XVIII 3.7 (25)

A perfect day for footy saw the 10th Brit Cup tournament run on the South coast, hosted by the local Southampton Titans. An annual tournament which only the European players from the UK clubs can compete in, the event has been held in a number of venues around the country and is a great chance for the regional clubs to level the playing field against their Aussie-rich London counterparts.

The AFL website is reporting that South Australia has claimed the Division 1 title at the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships despite a three-point loss to Vic Country on Friday. SA finished with the same 2-1 record as Western Australia, but claimed the championship on countback by virtue of its win over WA on Tuesday. The anomaly here is that the official program for the series lists a Grand Final round in September as part of AFL Grand Final celebrations, featuring the top teams from each division (the international sides ineligible).

Results from the 2010 NAB AFL Under-16 Championships Division One matches played at Blacktown Olympic Park on Friday, below.

The Great Britain Bulldogs have named a squad drawn mainly from England's Southern and Central-North West leagues for their upcoming 2010 European Championships campaign. With the EC2010 coinciding with the AFL London finals series, a number of the GB regulars will be playing for their domestic clubs early August, which opens the opportunities for new faces among the Bulldogs.

GB coach Mark Pitura says the squad was chosen mostly from the teams that competed in the Brit Cup in Southampton on July 3rd, and is a good mix of youth and experience, lead by veterans Adam "Skippy" Bennett from Reading and Rob Fielder from Chippenham.

"As you can see, most players come from regional teams outside of London. A few exciting players to watch are Martyn Hinchey (Southampton Titans) in the ruck, 6 foot 6 Full forward Lee Tarn (Chippenham Redbacks) and goal sneak Mark Todd (Reading Kangaroos)."

The Bulldogs will be hoping for a strong showing at the Championships, having a history as being one of the "Big 3" alongside Ireland and Denmark, and being the only European nation ever to have defeated the Irish.

The re-branded Scottish Clansmen travelled abroad for the first time to the Four Nations Cup on July 3rd and 4th in Fontanafredda, northern Italy. The tournament was part of a Festival of Rugby and included the hosts Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Scotland has entered tournaments before, such as the EU Cup, but this was the first time the squad was exclusively players who are eligible for selection under the new Euro Cup rules. Having previously only played two Tests against Wales, the Clansmens' management team felt that this trip would be perfect preparation for the upcoming rematch against Wales, the first Test series against England and the Euro Cup in October.

The performances as much as the results have set the bench mark high for the remainder of the International season, with a competitive defeat to the highly rated Croatia and a comprehensive win over the Czech Republic. Scottish Head Coach Stevie Connor had his squad well prepared and highly motivated and the experience gained in Italy will be vital for the Clansmen in the upcoming matches.

While the signing of Rugby League star Israel Folau to the AFL's Greater Western Sydney expansion club made plenty of headlines this year, some of his family back in Tonga might also be set to create footy news in future.

Folau's 16 year old second cousins Peni Mahini and Simote Taunga are in the South Pacific squad currently competing at the national under 16s championships, and have caught the eye of talent scouts.

"Mahini's a great athlete and he's really competitive with the way he goes about it," the AFL's national community development manager Dean Warren said. "Simote is a little bit further away from a development point of view but has great athletic ability; his skills are just a little bit off the others at this point in time.

"They've only played less than 10 games but if they stick at it, Peni in particular with a bit of development and a really good program, has the athleticism and the raw ability to do it.

"Whether they take that opportunity is yet to be seen. The AFL needs to continue to provide them with the opportunities and the development pathway to realise that, and hopefully a number of AFL clubs have seen them play now."

For the full story story, read Folau's cousins begin AFL journey on afl.com.au.

There is so much happening in PNG football that at times it gets hard to cover it in full. As such here is a brief rundown of some of the things happening within the country. Really, it represents an amazing growth in the sport when so many of their finest players are already in Australia playing footy!

Some of the highlights include structured footy kicking off in a new province, junior growth in Port Moresby and Lae, and the AFL Academy.