World Footy News

The Sydney Swans' Canadian Rugby Union recruit, Mike Pyke, is continuing to impress in only his second season of Aussie Rules. After being elevated off the rookie list to debut in 2009, Pyke has added 6 games to his 8 AFL matches last year.

With injuries and suspension to other ruckmen the former Rugby International was thrown into the deep end earlier this year, manfully leading the Swans' ruck but struggling to exert sufficient influence. He is now back in a more appropriate role, supporting Sydney's Shane Mumford, but often taking on 50% of the rucking duties. Averaging 17 hitouts along with 2 marks, 2 tackles and 7 disposals is a pretty impressive return in just his second year at AFL level which is also only his second year ever in Australian football.

The 200cm, 104kg athlete is coming to the end of his contract and although the 26 year old is not ruling out a return to Rugby, he's hoping for a contract extension - it seems highly likely it will be offered.

The Western Bulldogs today congratulate Julia Gillard on this historic occasion becoming Australia’s first female Prime Minister. Ms Gillard has been a lifelong Western Bulldogs supporter and Member.

Chief Executive Campbell Rose said that today’s news marks not only an unforgettable day but also a historic one for both our Club and our country. “The Club is very proud to be associated with such a significant moment in our national history. Ms Gillard’s achievement is recognition for her tireless work within the western suburbs of Melbourne and we believe that Julia will make an outstanding Prime Minister. Julia is an brilliant leader and will represent the people of our country well,” said Rose.

The Bali Geckos Australian Rules team topped off hosting a very successful Powerade Bali Masters 9’s tournament by winning the championship. The Geckos defeated a team made up of Darwin firefighters in a fairly one-sided final of the cup division.

With 13 teams participating, this year’s tournament saw the largest number of teams to compete in an AFL tournament anywhere in Asia. The eleven teams from last year’s event all returned, and were joined by debutants the Motley Men from Victoria and the eventual runners-up the Darwin Firies.

The large number of teams, seven from Australia and six from Asia, saw the event split into two separate divisions, the Cup and the Plate competitions. The growing size of the tournament forced organisers to hold the event over two days at Bali’s leading sporting facility, the Canggu Club.

The Finland AFL reached a new milestone last Tuesday with the first ever league game being played where both teams were comprised entirely of non-Australians.

The Salo Juggernauts, who have had a completely Finnish line-up for their entire 3 year history, took on the reigning premiers, the Turku Dockers, who rested their three Aussies for the match and had a line-up for the 9-a-side game that included eleven Finns, two Estonians and one Greek.

This report courtesy of Craig Primmer.

The Portsmouth Pirates from the AFL Britain's Southern Regional league recently hosted journalist Jordan Cross, who had a run with the Pirates in spite of his previous impression of the game as being mindlessly violent.

Cross' article can be read here on The News' website, including a video.

The Pirates started up only in 2009, and have since grown to be one of the strongest clubs in England's regional south, hosting the National Club Championships earlier this year where they finished runners-up to the Huddersfield Rams.

The Irish players in the AFL have been undergoing a tough time of late, with Tadhg Kennelly out injured, Setanta O’hAlpin experiencing a dip in form and Pearce Hanley playing his first senior game of the season before being dropped. There has however been some promising performances in the VFL with Tommy Walsh kicking his first goals in the sport for Sandringham and Michael Quinn impressing for the Bendigo Bombers, kicking 3 goals last week.

ESPN have done a deal with Microsoft to provide its streaming ESPN3 service (which carries live AFL matches into the USA) to many Xbox 360 owners with Gold accounts in the USA. With the launch in November it will not give this viewing option until the 2011 season, and will only be available to customers whose ISPs also have a deal with ESPN to stream the service.

So it's not really a new service (but there will be some social and interactive features optimized for Xbox Live) because if you're a customer of one of those ISPs, you can already stream ESPN3 to your PC.

Although the arrangement might be attractive to Xbox owners who have their console hooked up to the giant plasma set, while the PC languishes in a home office, it won't bring ESPN3 content to the customers of Time Warner, Cablevision or many other major cable carriers. This weekend those who can view http://ESPN3.com in the US will see Round 13 AFL Matches Hawthorn v Essendon, Carlton v Fremantle and Brisbane v Richmond.

While footy clubs around the world work on setting up junior programs to bring youth talent to the game, one important source of youngsters should not be overlooked. That is school exchange programs. Each year there are hundreds of youths that come to Australia from overseas to attend school and a number of them inevitably end up playing Aussie rules with their local school or club competition.

Many of these youths show great promise, and it would be a shame to lose them to the game when they return home, often not realising that the game exists in their home country. German exchange student Bijan Muller is one such talented youth who has shown a natural talent for the Australian game. There will be many Socceroos fans out their who would welcome any dilution of sporting talent available to the German soccer team following their 4-0 defeat of Australia on Sunday.

The following article New cult hero at Hawks is from the Ararat Advertiser.

After many years of the same look, visitors to http://www.usafl.com/ will see an all new USFooty website from today. The new website features a number of new sections as well as up to date information and even a hint of a new USFooty team - the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.

The biggest national tournament on the AFL Britain calendar is fast approaching, with this year's edition of the annual Brit Cup scheduled for Saturday July 3rd in Southampton. The tournament sees club and representative sides, drawn entirely for the EU players pool in the UK, compete over the course of a gruelling day.

It is also a key opportunity for players to prove themselves worthy of selection to the GB Bulldogs national team, who will be competing at both the EU Championships in Denmark and the International Cup in Australia within the next 18 months.

Teams can be either entered by a club, or representative of an area such as the Southern Region team which competed in 2009. The only stipulation is that all players must be eligible for EU status - no players classed as Australian or Rest of World are permitted. Games will consist of 12-a-side games using full AFL rules and be played on an oval, with a maximum bench size of 6 and a maximum squad size of 18.

The Sydney Swans are excited to announce they have signed one of the most gifted young athletes in NSW to their recently-established Academy. African-born Alex Jalloh, 14, has excelled at soccer, rugby, athletics and Australian football, but has opted to be part of the Swans Advanced Academy, which means he can be drafted directly to the Club in 2013.

The Academy’s talent identification and operations manager, Chris Smith, said Jalloh’s signing was a major win for the Academy. “This is a real win for the Sydney Swans Academy where a priority is attracting kids who have the ability to excel at a number of sports,’’ Smith said. “The fact Alex chose the Swans Academy in its first year of operation, over his other sporting options, is extremely pleasing. We’re excited to have the opportunity to nurture and develop Alex’s extraordinary athletic talent,’’ Smith said.

Former Sydney Swans star Michael O'Loughlin has spoken on the AFL website about the challenge and excitement of coaching the youth World XVIII at the upcoming NAB AFL Under 16 Championships, to be staged in western Sydney.

The video interview can be viewed here.

It's only a few weeks until the tournament begins - see NAB AFL Under 16s draw announced