World Footy News

Australian football's international growth has been most impressive over the past decade, aided by several threads such as the internet, television coverage, the growing Aussie Diaspora, and increasing enthusiasm from the AFL.

Of course there are always challenges along the way. The more common ones include finding ovals to play on, explaining to locals that it isn't Rugby Union, Rugby League or soccer and then convincing them to play, and travelling long distances to find opposing teams.

But recently two more unusual roadblocks have popped up - one very human and the other very much Nature.

In China, AFL Development Officer Andrew Sawitsch has been tasked with getting Auskick-style clinics running in Shanghai, and has had some recent success in five schools already. However his efforts were for a time curtailed by Chinese customs officials who were obviously suspicious of this new game and impounded 500 footballs, Auskick backpacks and hats. Fortunately the items were set free, but not before a month had passed.

An even bigger headache goes by the name of Eyjafjallajökull. On April 17th Great Britain was due to play Denmark in Farum, Copenhagen. As always it was a big effort to arrange a large travelling squad from across the Kingdom to travel and play a full scale international. But as the weekend drew near it became obvious they had an insurmountable problem - Iceland's erupting volcano was shutting down airports across northern and western Europe. Ultimately there was no choice - the match was cancelled. Hopefully the situation will be all clear in August when nations converge on Denmark and Sweden for the inaugural European Championships.

USFootyNews.com is counting down the 2010 Preseason Top 10. At Number 9 is the San Diego Lions.

2009 was certainly not the best season in the Lions' history. They finished under 500 (to non-Americans that's a win-loss ratio under 50%) after a disappointing Nationals campaign. However, it is not always about the Ws. According to Lions Head Coach Simon Schenk, "As is the case in footy, the barometer for success is not always wins and losses. Last year was a very rewarding season at the Lions. For all our games about 80% of our players were Americans, and in one of our 4 quarter games we fielded an entirely American side. In most of our games 15-16 out the 18 on the field were Americans. This is a great testament to the club in their efforts to not rely on Australians, and to really foster the American influence. Our board is also comprised entirely of Americans. So great stuff."

Photo: The Lions in the Yellow and Maroon take on arch rivals the OC Bombers.

Nic Naitanui from the West Coast Eagles is the NAB AFL Rising Star Nominee for Round Four. The exciting ruckman was a standout for the Eagles as the team scored its first victory for the 2010 season over Essendon at Subiaco Oval on Friday night.

Dominating the ruck with Dean Cox – a player he once idolised as a junior - Nic had 17 hitouts and gathered 13 disposals, 10 of which were contested and five tackles. His ability to clear the ball from ruck stoppages was a highlight with a game high equalling seven clearances.

The milestone for Naitanui will be keenly followed by those in his family's homeland of Fiji and no doubt by many immigrant Australians who dream of making their mark in Australian football. Nic is a raging favourite to take out the Rising Star award for the entire 2010 season following his outstanding form in the season so far.

Indonesia may next year become the fourth Asian nation to appear at the International Cup, with hopes that the vibrant league composed entirely of local Indonesians in the Jakarta area could provide the necessary recruits to send a team downunder.

Dan Delaney from the AFL Indonesia says development of Australian rules in Indonesia has focussed on lower socio-economic areas, and the organisation would therefore have to find the funding to pay for all the squad's costs.

This would make the project a costly affair, but with a number of funding avenues being examined, the support of expat-based footy clubs such as the Jakarta Bintangs and some assistance from Indonesian international students in Melbourne through the Indo Footy Stars, Delaney believes the project is both achievable and also worthwhile from sporting and social development perspectives.

World Footy News this week spoke with Alex Benjamin the creator and host of the Nashville Kangaroos ARFC Webcast channel on Justin.TV website. Alex’s trailblazing coverage of the USAFL and the AFL from an American standpoint is approaching its second anniversary on the channel this weekend.

How did your channel and show start?

In my fifth season as being a goal umpire for not only the team, but for the USAFL (US Footy), I felt that the sport was not getting the recognition that it deserved and also being a die-hard supporter of the team, I thought of branching out from doing the goal umpire duties to another venue, thus the channel.

As for the show itself, that came out of invention after the 2009 Nationals in Mason, OH, when my good friend, US Nationals Umpire Secretary Lisa Albergo (spoke about it) and I thought “Wouldn't it be nice to do a show with AFL and USFooty?” So, we took the initiative and began USFooty/AFL Weekly.

Following the creation of the Beijing AFL in 2009, the Shanghai Tigers kicked off China's second domestic Australian rules football competition on March 27th, with the North Shanghai Crows, West Shanghai Dockers and Shanghai Eagles clashing in a four-match afternoon of footy at the Shanghai Rugby Football Club.

Players from Australia, China, Ireland, US, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea pulled on the boots for the three teams, with the Eagles defeating both the other sides to sit on top of the ladder after round one.

The AFL's China Development Manager Andrew Sawitsch is now based in Shanghai, and has been working to introduce a modified version of Auskick into the city's schools. There are also plans to start senior football at the Shanghai Sports University, players from which could form the nucleus of the Chinese team at next year's International Cup.

With the announcement of an AFL exhibition match between the Melbourne Demons and Brisbane Lions to be played in Shanghai's Jiangwan Stadium in October 2010, there has never been a more exciting time for the Australian game in China.

After many years of development in South Africa, Australian football there has produced its first international scholarship player, Bayanda Sobetwa, and today he is due to touch down in Sydney. Sobetwa, from Khayelitsha Township (south east of Cape Town), will play with Greater Western Sydney in Victoria's TAC Cup Under 18 competition (given dispensation since he is 19). GWS will be the 18th AFL club, entering the big time in 2012, one year after the Gold Coast.

As part of his scholarship with Team GWS, Sobetwa will also undertake an AFL SportsReady Traineeship which will combine study and work in multicultural development in Western Sydney.

Team GWS High Performance Manager Alan McConnell and some of Bayanda Sobetwa's new team-mates are expected to meet him at the airport to welcome the South African to Australia.

On the recently-released list of nations who've expressed an interest in attending the 2011 International Cup were a number of European newcomers, who've come through the ranks of tournaments such as the EU Cup and are mostly in the process of setting up their domestic leagues.

The exception to that was Portugal, where footy has not yet been played on an organised level beyond the occasional social kick-to-kick. Portuguese local David Valente is hoping to change all that, with a continuing search for players and supporters to kick off footy in the country, the immediate goal of making it to the 2010 EU Cup, and maybe even the ambitious task of having a full squad ready for next year's International Cup.

Over the last few days worldfootynews.com has been pleased to unveil our new logo and website banner. Both are courtesy of Anthony Costa of Costa Sports Logos.

The logo features our commonly used acronym, WFN, as well as the website address, and a world map morphed to a football. The banner features images from the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. Time and quality photos permitting, we may be lucky enough to have Anthony produce a similar banner featuring other images later in the year.

And as always we hope many websites will make use of our logo to link to us, or at least consider putting us in their text links, so we can continue to spread their football news all around the world.

Less than two weeks ago I wrote an opinion piece suggesting that the relatively new AFL interpretation of the rules, intended to protect players' heads and necks, is actually creating an increase in injury that will inevitably lead to a very serious injury at some level of the game. It seems former Hawthorn champion and four time premiership coach Leigh Matthews has come to a similar conclusion.

The basic premise is that by rewarding a player putting their head over the ball at the last moment of a collision, creating high contact from an upright player, the League has actually encouraged players to endanger themselves. Yes the other player in general tries to avoid contact, but often it is either unavoidable or the player also goes low, risking their own head and neck.

This is now occurring many times per game, and almost every match sees players nursing sore heads or necks. In Friday night's West Coast versus Essendon clash, which opened Round 4 of the 2010 season, it again happened. This wasn't the classic case I have argued, this time neither player went really low, but both still confronted the ball front on attempting to take possession, and their heads clashed, resulting in a stoppage in play and at least one (Brad Dalzeil) leaving the playing arena. As well as the more prominent injuries others are also happening, such as Josh Kennedy who also came up sore from ducking their head into a collision (goalsquare, second quarter).

In beautiful conditions for football, Manchester Mozzies' annual pre-season tournament was played and won last Saturday April 10th, with the Wimbledon Hawks from the AFL London overcoming competition from around regional England and Ireland to take out the cup.

The Hawks finished top of the table, in a 5-team field including the Manchester Mozzies, Chippenham Redbacks, Sheffield Thunder and Ireland's Midland Tigers.

Player of the Tournament honours went to Garth Nevin, who this year has taken on the task of coordinating and coaching the Sheffield Thunder.

The next few weeks see British footy's pre-season tournament circuit continue, with the British "Clwb" Challenge in Cardiff on April 17th, and the Portsmouth National Club Championships and ANZAC Cup on April 24th.

The newly-renamed British "Clwb" Challenge will be kicking off at 12pm this Saturday April 17th, with the 2009 WARFL Grand Finalists South Cardiff Panthers vs Swansea Magpies at the Llandaff Fields in Cardiff's city centre.

In the tournament’s 3rd year, the WARFL are making their marquee tournament an invitational club event, hoping to draw the best clubs from across the isle - especially the teams that reached the 2009 Grand Final of their respective Scottish, English and Welsh regional leagues.

In the 2008 tournament the Manchester Mosquitoes defeated Bristol Dockers for the title, then known as the Cardiff "Clwb" Challenge. In 2009 however, the Mosquitoes couldn't quite defend their title, with Nottingham Scorpions losing one match for the day and finishing at the top of the table.

This year the tournament will be in a 9-a-side AFL GB format, playing 2x12 minute halves. The Birmingham Bears, Nottingham Scorpions, Portsmouth Pirates, South Cardiff Panthers, Swansea Magpies and West London Wildcats will fight it out in a tournament consisting of 8 rounds, each of the clubs playing each other over 5 matches each.