World Footy News

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.

NOTE - We've received confirmation that the game has been called off due to all flights from Britain being cancelled after the volcanic eruptions in Iceland.

This weekend will see the first full-scale test match of the year, with the Great Britain Bulldogs traveling to Scandinavia to take on the Denmark Vikings.

Denmark coach Jim Campion is expecting a hard and physical match, with his squad looking to counter the height advantage the Bulldogs have over the Vikings. The Brits are fielding a squad with ten first-time Bulldogs representatives, including a large contingent from the England Dragonslayers squad that won the 2009 EU Cup in Croatia last October.

The rivalry between Great Britain and Denmark (or earlier Denmark-Sweden) is one of the oldest in international footy, with ten tests played between them, dating back to their first clash in 1994. The Danes hold the upper hand, with seven victories to the Bulldogs' three, although the Bulldogs defeated the Vikings in their last encounter, in London during 2009.

David King (who shares the name with former North Melbourne player - but is not THAT David King) is the latest Aussie rules footballer to be signed to a punting contract for an American Football (NFL) club. Coming close on the heels of the signing by the Green Bay Packers of Chris Bryan, the New England Patriots have signed their own Aussie. Jy Bond is the other Aussie in contention for a spot and has signed with the New York Giants.

King is likely to have to go through a full preseason and compete against either a drafted punter or another punter brought in by the Patriots. The former Aussie rules player was one of a number of Aussie who attended punting camps in the US in 2009.

The Australian Football League today released a list of nations that have signaled their aim to compete at the Australian Football International Cup 2011, with 22 countries having submitted an official Expression of Interest as of last Friday.

The 22 nations includes all 17 (Tonga included) who were in attendance in 2008, minus the Peace Team who are yet to submit a response. The six potential newcomers who have returned their official notification are Fiji, Croatia, France, Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands.

In addition to the initial 22 nations, AFL National Participation Programs Manager Josh Vanderloo indicates that the league has also had correspondence with further nations including Vanuatu, Italy and Indonesia who may further expand the field.

Vanderloo said, "The AFL is very pleased to have had such a positive response at this early stage. We now have a large base of interested nations to work with and over the next month or two we will finalise the event details so that they can plan their involvement in the 4th International Cup."

The AFL has not confirmed dates and venues for the IC11, although there is strong speculation that it will run from the 7th until the 21st of August 2011, and again be held in Melbourne and a regional Victorian center.

Any additional nominations will be added to the list below.

An incredible performance with seven goals in the final quarter saw the Italia Azzurris score a dramatic and unexpected come-from-behind win over the London Swans in Milano last Saturday, April 10th.

Eight goals from full-forward Bruno Nugnes helped the Italians to a 19-point win over the undermanned Swans. This represented the first victory for the Italians at home, who have also hosted the Frankfurt Redbacks since their formation last year.

Thanks to the AFL Italia for this report.

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Collingwood's American recruit, Shae McNamara played his first game of VFL. While Collingwood lost, McNamara had 11 touches and a nice snap at goal. McNamara blogs about his experiences at USFootyNews.com.

McNamara says that he is trying to stay positive as he learns the game and develops his skills. He is very focused on his goal of making the senior side and his hopeful of doing that this season.

No surprises from Cape Town in South Africa as the elite AIS-AFL Under 17 team of Australians taught the open-age South African Lions some lessons in their one-off match. It should be noted that the Aussies ran close to the Sydney Swans' reserves before departing Australia. Former Sydney Swans star Michael O’Loughlin, on his second visit to South Africa in 2010, coached the South African Lions team and was impressed with their willingness to learn.

“The key difference between the two teams was the ability of the Aussies to handle the ball under pressure – a skill developed from a young age which will no doubt come to the South Africans as they gain more experience”, said O’Loughlin

More details and photos of the match soon.

AIS AFL Academy: 26.22 (178)
South Africa Lions: 4.5 (29)

Goals:
Australia: Sam Gordon 3, Michael Bussey 3, Aaron Young 3, Chad Wingard 3, Adam Treloar 2, Ben Newton 2, Daniel Gorringe, Sam Day, Sam Darley, Tom Mitchell, Billy Longer, Andrew Gaff, Piers Flanagan, Jonathon Patton, Luke Parker, Darcy Watchorn
South Africa Lions: Toy Prinsloo 2, Steven Malinga 1, Steven Matshane 1.

Best:
Australia: Tom Mitchell, Daniel Gorringe, Adam Treloar, Michael Bussey, Piers Flanagan, Sam Gordon, Chad Wingard, Jonathon Patton.
South Africa: Benjamin Motuba, Richard Prinsloo, Steven Matshane, Thabiso Phakedi, Bayanda Sobetwa.