World Footy News

The South Pacific entered the first round of the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships as warm favourites to beat the World XVIII squad, and they proved to be deserving of that position, stretching their lead at every break, though really only breaking free in the last quarter, to win by 32 points. Match report below, photos to follow soon.

With bright sunshine and near perfect conditions in Western Sydney's Blacktown and the new AFL facility looking a picture, the teams lined up before the game, the highlight being the South Pacific giving a spirited multinational equivalent of the Haka, listing in turn the countries the boys come from: PNG, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Nauru, Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Zealand, all called out in turn with a lot of gusto.

Today Division Two of the Under 16 Championships commences with the long awaited official debut of the World XVIII and South Pacific sides. Yesterday the tournament kicked off with Division One powerhouses Victoria Metro, Victoria Country, Western Australia and South Australia. The opening wins went to WA and SA.

Round one matches to be played today, Sunday, July 4 at Blacktown Olympic Park:

10am World XVIII v South Pacific
12.30pm Tasmania v Northern Territory
3pm Queensland v NSW/ACT

The World XVIII youth side is in Australia to compete in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships. Drawn from junior players from around the planet (excluding the South Pacific, competing as a separate side), the team features one Danish player, Mathias Biron.

With Denmark's league being one of Europe's oldest, and with a long record of junior development, it was perhaps a little disappointing that we couldn't see more of their young players at this tournament. But worldfootynews.com was pleased to help Mathias make the long journey down to Australia, making a donation to his family. We have limited resources so could only afford to assist one player this year, and the decision to help the young Dane was no particular preference, and we hope that in future we may be able to offer similar support to perhaps one player from a different country each year.

Early reports are that Mathias has performed well in the training and trial matches, with one knowledgeable onlooker telling WFN that he could well be Denmark's best player at next year's International Cup.

WFN's Troy Thompson caught up with Mathias on Friday for a quick chat. Listen to the audio here.

The Central and North West Region of AFL Britain is fast approaching the final rounds of its first season, with the Manchester Mosquitoes having secured their place in the Grand Final after 7 rounds.

The race is on to see who will challenge the so far undefeated Mozzies in the decider, to be held in Wolverhampton on July24th. Huddersfield and Nottingham are both locked on points and have challenging matches scheduled for the final two rounds.

After a break this weekend for the Brit Cup, the next round of the CNW Region is on the 10th July in Manchester, with Sheffield vs Wolverhampton at 1pm and Huddersfield vs Manchester at 2.30pm. The season is far from over and it will be a race to the finish.

After a hopeful starting line-up of clubs for the season, the region finished with 5 regular clubs, the Sheffield Thunder, Huddersfield Rams, Manchester Mosquitoes, Nottingham Scorpions and Wolverhampton Wolverines.

Of those that didn't make the pitch in 2010, Birmingham are hoping to re-emerge next year, alongside Hull, Oxford and Peterborough who look set to make their belated debuts in 2011.

The World18 and the South Pacific teams to play in the Under 16 National Championships next week were in Melbourne this week to be acclimatised to playing Australian football in Australia. With many of the players not accustomed to playing 18 a side and in some cases not completely familiar with the rules it gives the coaching staff of both teams a chance to cram in teaching of skills and tactics as well.

At Melbourne University oval yesterday both teams had their second warm up match against each other after their match earlier in the week separated them by just a goal. Media assembly at the event was diluted by a large police raid and blockade in Melbourne’s west, but built as the session continued. The World team in blue and the South Pacific in red kits (not the team kits for next week’s championships) both went through warm up drills for about half an hour before the formalities got underway.

worldfootynews.com's Troy Thompson headed down to Melbourne University Oval to watch the South Pacific and World XVIII teams go head to head in a practice match as they prepare to compete in the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships against fellow Division Two teams NSW/ACT, Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania. Below are short videos of the half time words of wisdom from the respective coaches on the day - both recently retired AFL stars.

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World XVIII team addressed by coach Michael O'Loughlin.

Continue on to see Scott Lucas talk to the South Pacific players at half time, and a post-match address to the World XVIII, and the South Pacific players in prayer, reflecting the strong Christian faith common across many of the South Pacific islands. And in the next couple of days look out for Troy's encouraging thoughts on the quality of players on show.

The South Pacific and World teams have begun the process of playing scratch matches in the lead up to their first NAB AFL Under 16s match this weekend.

On Sunday the South Pacific squad had a trial match in country Victoria (but not far from Melbourne) against a Waubra Under 18s team, kicking 4.11 (35) to 5.2 (32). Best players included Wingti Pena, Slim Collins, Donatello Moses, Herman Tanuvasa, Samiuela Tuitupou, Liam Ackland, Gavuri, Rhys Panui-Leth and John Ikupu. The World side has also had a hitout, with more to come. The coaching staff have the difficult task of pulling together all the different nationalities, working out their best roles, giving all the players a fair run, and ensuring the players learn to play together as a cohesive unit.

One of the major events of the OAFL footy calender is just about upon us. And can you believe the hype this year? Early on in the piece there was talk that perhaps the game would not go ahead, but alas it has, and will, this Thursday at Humber South College at 2pm.

Not only is this game the main draw card of the day, but there is a lot going on with exhibition netball matches, a Rookies Challenge game, junior game and for the first time ever on Canada Day, a womens match!! Going to be a real top notch day!

The main game is scheduled a mere month before the Team Canada "Northwind" are set to take on the US in the 49th Parallel Cup on Saturday July 31st, as well as getting some much needed experience before they head to Australia in 2011 to take on the best in the world in the International Cup. What better way for Northwind to prepare than to play against some of the best the OAFL has to offer.

The youth World XVIII and South Pacific players have arrived in Australia for the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships, with both squads competing in Division Two against Tasmania, NT, Queensland and NSW/ACT.

The players were scheduled to touch down in Melbourne last weekend and are now undergoing an intensive week of skills training and general football education, before they head up to Sydney for their opening clash (which is against each other) next Sunday, July 4th.

A dispensation for the international sides, which are competing in this elite competition for the first time, is that they can field players up to 18 years old. The World side also includes a significant contingent of young multicultural Australian talent.

The Vice President of China, Xi Jinping, attended last week's AFL match between Carlton and Fremantle on the invitation of dignitaries which included, "AFL commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and Victorian premier John Brumby." Xi has previously been named amongst the Top 100 most influential people in the world, by Time magazine.

After the rules were explained in Mandarin by a Southern Dragons player, Xi expressed an interest in the sport, enquiring if any players were of Chinese heritage and was excited by the prospect of future players being recruited from China. When he later addressed a trade delegation, he even made mention of his night at the footy. If the sport has made a positive impression on Xi, this could add serious momentum to the sport's expansion into the world's biggest country, as Xi is likely successor to current president Hu Jintao.

Melbourne play the Brisbane Lions in an exhibition match at Jiangwan Sports Centre in Shanghai on 17 October 2010, with a crowd of up to 30,000 a possibility.

The third annual Coupe de France will kick off in Strasbourg this weekend, bringing together players from right across the country. After a season where they had to withdraw from the national league and focus on rebuilding their squad, the Strasbourg Kangaroos will be eager to show the rest of the nation's clubs that they can match it with the best.

The Paris Cockerels are hot favourites going into the tournament, hoping to add another back-to-back championship. Led by Icelandic-born footy veteran and former Denmark Vikings captain Palli Finnsson, the Parisians have been tough to defeat throughout their 2009-10 French national league, running out premiers.

The Bordeaux Bombers look likely to be the principle challengers to the Cockerels, having finished runners-up in the main season. Fred Zohar's charges are justifiably confident that they can make the final, and haven't given up on any dreams of knocking off the Cockerels for the cup.

The Toulouse Crocodiles are also banking on a strong performance, which could see them go all the way to the final. However they may be missing some of their key members for the tournament.

Rounding out the field will be a combined team from Languedoc-Roussillon, composed of players from the Montpellier Firesharks and the Perpignan Tigers. They also have the potential to surprise the field, with the French footy community noting that the Tigers were surprise finalists in last year's Coupe.

For more information, visit footballaustralien.com or the Strasbourg Kangourous' site.

In a story of one who had the talent, but was lost to footy, Rhys Casley has recently been unveiled as the new captain of NZ’s National Softball team. Softball in NZ is a major summer sport and is very popular with a large percentage of the population.

Rhys was a football prodigy who came to Wellington football as a 15 year old. He was one of those kids that the plodders of the world like me love to hate (I mean envy). Multi-talented, he already was in the key position of Number 8 for his schoolboy rugby team, a provincial champion athlete and already in junior national softball teams. Even at that age he had a big frame and now at the at about 193 cms and about 90 kgs what a key position player he would have made!!!