Welcome to World Footy News Wednesday, February 19 2025 @ 03:08 pm ACDT
Representatives of the Hawthorn footy club have recently been in NZ again. Hawthorn players spent three days in New Zealand, holding clinics at schools and meeting AFLNZ representatives.
To read about their whirlwind tour, see HANZ-UP! tour of New Zealand.
The following are the official AFL results from Round Two of the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships for Division Two.
Early scores coming in from today's 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships. We'll update as we get more information.
NSW/ACT 15.8 (98) defeated Northern Territory 9.9 (63)
1/4 Tasmania World XVIII
1st 5.3 (33) 1.0 (6)
half 8.12 (60) 2.0 (12)
3/4 12.17 (89) 2.0 (12)
final 15.18 (108) 3.1 (19)
World XVIII goalkickers - Sean O'Kennedy (Ireland), Peter Ajang (Kenya), Prince Nematswerani (South Africa)
1/4 Queensland South Pacific
1st 4.3 (27) 1.1 (7)
half 5.9 (39) 1.3 (9)
3/4 7.9 (51) 5.4 (34)
final 7.15 (57) 6.6 (42)
South Pacific goalkickers - Kafoa Tuaefe (Tonga), TBC
The second round of the 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships got underway yesterday, with Vic Metro defeating Vic Country by 36 points and South Australia defeating Western Australia by 27 points.
The official Record (program) for the 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships is available for download from the AFL website. It features a preview of the tournament, full squads for all the teams (including the South Pacific and World XVIII) and a summary of some of the international programs around the world.
You can download it here.
The following are the official AFL results from Round One of the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships for Division Two.
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.
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.
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