World Footy News

The Wolverhampton Wolverines played their first-ever match last Saturday, taking on the University of Birmingham Sharks. Although the Sharks won the match 126-58, Wolverines founder Ian Mitchell was upbeat about his squad's debut performance. "My lads played really well and learnt a lot. It was fairly close until the Sharks took the game away from us in the 4th quarter, after we had put them under great pressure and won the 3rd."

Stand-out performers for the Wolverines were Sam Findell with 4 goals, Ben Yeates who took some great marks under pressure and Tom Archer who was solid at fullback.

Besides hoping to schedule a few more friendlies during May, the Wolverines will meet the Liverpool Eagles in their first league game this Saturday, with all teams in the Central & North West League coming to Manchester for the round, including the debuts of the clubs from Peterborough and Hull.

The World XVIII and South Pacific squads have been named for the June 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 championships in Australia. This is the first time international squads have been invited to compete and although the inaugural teams are likely to be in for a torrid time on the scoreboard, in coming years the concept should provide an excellent pathway to the AFL as well as an incentive for international leagues to promote youth.

The players named have been selected but have not necessarily confirmed their involvement, as it will be subject to players making the journey Down Under. The full lists are given below. Including the multi-cultural component, there are 21 countries represented.

The Cincinnati Dockers Australian Rules Football Club will begin their 14th season at the annual John Harrell Memorial Cup tournament in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, May 8th. The matches will start at 1:00 PM, and will take place at Champions Park on River Road in Louisville.

Cincinnati is coming off a stellar 2009 season which saw them win their second consecutive United States Australian Football League (USAFL) Division 4 title in Mason, OH, and their fourth league championship overall. In that tournament, the Dockers won all 4 of their matches to win the crown. Following that finish, the Dockers have high hopes of achieving a three-peat.

The tournament itself will be divided into two groups, A and B, and have some special rules. Matches in group A will feature 12 players on the field per team, while matches in group B will have 9 players on the field per team. Games in this tournament will consist of 2 20-minute halves. Cincinnati will be represented in both groups, and will compete against squads from the Nashville Kangaroos and the Columbus Jackaroos in each group.

Tyler Kamerman no doubt has the American frontier spirit, but at the same time he upholds that great Aussie desire just to have a kick of the footy. His return to his home state left him without a footy outlet, so he started his own. While he is not the first member of the mobile American nation to take the Aussie Rules seed and transplant it to new fertile, virgin ground, he is the first to do so in his home state of Iowa.

The Des Moines Roosters first materialized last year when the US Nationals divisions were announced, and those of us not so familiar with US geography had to check out where exactly Des Moines was. It turns out it is a geographical hub of a semicircle that is ringed by other USFooty cities Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis and Kansas City.

To find out more about the USFooty new kids on the block, we spoke with Tyler this week.

The AFL has selected the World XVIII squad (Under 18s) to compete in the Under 16 championships against Australian states. worldfootynews.com will have details of other country selections soon, but for now, Canada's representatives...

AFL Canada is pleased to advise that 4 players have been selected by the Australian Football League to be part of the 30 player squad to represent the inaugural Under 18 World XVIII that will compete in the NAB State under 16 championships to be held in Melbourne & Sydney, Australia from June 27th - July 11th.

The initial 4 players selected were Riyad Karacic (Etobicoke Kangaroos, pictured left), James Duggan (Toronto Dingos) in Toronto Ontario, Clayton Lund and Andrew Roosdahl both from Vancouver, British Columbia. Unfortunately James Duggan will not be able to attend and he has been replaced by John Elliott (pictured right) also of the Etobicoke Kangaroos.

The players will travel to Australia prior to June 27th and attend a week long training camp and practise games in Melbourne before heading to Sydney where they will compete in Division 2 against New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Tasmania and a Pacific XVIII team.

Oslo's Australian football team, the Oslo Crows, defeated Swedish team the Karlstad Eagles by 39 points at Ekebergsletta in Oslo on Saturday.

In windy, rainy conditions the home team kicked 10.9.69 to Karlstad's 4.6.30, with Paul Swanston bagging three majors for Oslo.

The win was a great result for a team that featured many Norwegians with limited experience with Australian football, including several first-gamers. Best players for Oslo were Erik Svela, Nathan Roxby, Paul Swanston and Amund Lundesgaard.

The Essendon Football Club along with Cricket Victoria and supported by Primus Telecom, last week launched the GLoBALL initiative, which, "aims to provide positive engagement opportunities for international students and new migrants to interact with the broader Victorian community through sport by providing free cricket and football activities year round."

Through the program, thousands of international students and newly arrived migrants will have the opportunity to attend up to three AFL matches. The first intake attended last round's match in which Essendon defeated the Hawks.

According to the Bombers' media release, "beyond matches, program participants will have the opportunity to be involved in tours of iconic facilities, will be buddied up with AFL and cricket supporters on match days, and will enjoy practical skill sessions and other social events."

A website has also been set up, suggesting some activities newly arrived migrants and international students might like to be involved in.

Setanta O’hAlpin (pictured left) and Tadhg Kennelly (right) have both started the AFL season in highly impressive form but as yet are the only Irish players to have played senior football in the AFL in 2010. Kennelly has been instrumental in the Sydney Swans shock rise to first place in the ladder after six matches, winning five and only losing a tight contest to premiership favourites St. Kilda. Setanta has kicked 16 goals for Carlton including a personal best 5 goals against arch rivals Collingwood last week and has been in career best form.

A quick plug for our main sponsor, Burley-Sekem, who do sell to countries around the world, and can provide various Australian football items including Guernseys (jumpers) and footballs. Of particular interest is the colourful array of international jumpers they've produced and specifically featured in their brochure which can be accessed by clicking on the yellow Order Sheet that features at the top of our site.

With an "awesome display of guts, determination and sheer skill", the mighty Huddersfield Rams outclassed six opponents from around England & Wales to take out the UK National Carnival in Portmsouth on Saturday April 24th.

In only their second year, and proudly wearing Western Australian State-of-Origin jumpers until their new kit arrives, the Huddersfield Rams brought the cup back to Yorkshire for the first time in the tournament's history.

The Rams won six games out of six to battle through to the final, before seeing off the hosts the Portsmouth Pirates. Rams captain Danny Armitage picked up the Golden Boot award for the tournament with an outstanding performance of 18 goals.

Club founder and president, Karl Haigh said “I’m so proud of the effort put in by the lads – both in the build up to and duration of the carnival. Considering that we came here last year and did not win a game, to come here in 2010 and go on and win the thing is amazing.”

The 9-a-side National Carnival is the last pre-season tournament before the regular season begins, this year hosted in Portsmouth by the Portsmouth Pirates with the Southampton Titans, Bournemouth Demons, Bristol Dockers, Sheffield Thunder, Cardiff Double Blues and the Rams all vying for the Cup.

This report courtesy of the Huddersfield Rams AFC.

USFootyNews.com is counting down the 2010 Preseason Top 10. At Number 8 is the Boston Demons.

The Boston Demons are my dark horse pick for the 2010 National Championship. Keep an eye on the boys from Boston, they mean business.

In 2009, they spent much of the season on the road which helps to explain their 2-4 record during the regular season. At Nationals, however, the showed some glimpses with a draw against the 2008 National Champions, the Vancouver Cougars, and 1 point point loss to Golden Gate.

Head Coach, Scott Nicholas, was encouraged by the performances and is hopeful for 2010. "A very disappointing feeling but also a very encouraging one. We feel that we are getting very close to having the team we want that will give Nationals a real shake."

Boston's Andrew Stratford takes a leap at the 2009 EAFL Tourney in Philly. Photo: Rob Oliver.

An article by Jennifer Witham for the AFL website reports that the Kaspersky AFL Cup, October's match in Shanghai between Melbourne and Brisbane, is a chance to be broadcast live into the Shanghai region. If so, it could reach 100 million viewers and be a great introduction for the game into the Chinese market.

As previously reported, the AFL has been in talks with the Shanghai Media Group to broadcast the match live, and the concept has been boosted with a recent radio broadcast in Mandarin of Melbourne's minor round match against Brisbane by Jamie Pi on 3CW, a Chinese language radio station in Melbourne.

Furthermore, the AFL, Monash and La Trobe University ticket giveaway appears to have been a success, with 2605 students attending the match.

The Melbourne Football Club have been active in pushing the game into China for several years, but for a while appeared to lose momentum as they struggled on and off the field. 2010's on field revival certainly makes the Demons a much more viable option to promote Aussie Rules to China and international students in Melbourne.

Monash's director of sport Martin Doulton said the opportunity to attend Saturday's match was enthusiastically received by the students.

"For our many international students and staff who came along with their Australian friends and colleagues this was truly an iconic Australian cultural experience that will live in their memory for many, many years," he said.

"Lots of students commented on the fact that rival fans could mingle together without the need for fences to separate the rival tribes that is so prevalent overseas."