World Footy News

Footy in Britain has seen steady growth for a number of years now, emerging from the traditional heartland of London, expanding now into leagues on the South coast, Wales, Scotland, Central and Northern England. With potentially another competition emerging in Cornwall as well, the foothold is well and truly there to establish the sport further and encourage a wider audience to give it a go.

The 2010 pre-season is a busy old time as well! Beginning this weekend with the Scottish ARFL's annual Haggis Cup and the Manchester Footy Carnival both on April 10, followed by the Welsh ARFL's Cardiff 'Clwb' Challenge on April 17th.

This year the Southampton-based Titanic Cup is replaced with the National Footy Carnival, courtesy of relative newcomers to the Southern League - the Portsmouth Pirates, to be held April 24th.

The city of Kingston upon Hull, usually known simply as 'Hull', is home to Yorkshire's newest Australian Football side, with the creation of the Haworth Park (Hull) Australian Rules Club.

Playing under the banner of the local Haworth Park Rugby Club, who are providing the fledgling club with a home base, the team will be the first Australian Football club in the Hull, which like many Yorkshire towns is a traditional Rugby League stronghold.

Haworth Park will compete in the AFL Britain's Central & North West division's social competition in 2010, alongside Liverpool, Peteborough and Wolverhampton. Club founder Dan Beardshaw spoke to WFN about the team's aims for their first season.

The Vietnam Swans have announced that they will this year host their first ANZAC memorial match on the weekend of 24-25 April this year. The match will be a domestic clash, with the Hanoi Hawks taking on the Saigon Saints in Vung Tau, close to Saigon and Long Tan.

ANZAC Day, which commemorates Australia and New Zealand's fallen soldiers, is a common fixture for international footy events, with matches this year scheduled in places of significance to Australian military history including Villiers-Bretonneux in France, Hellfire Pass in Thailand, and Long Tan in Vietnam.

This report courtesy of the Vietnam Swans.

In a move of particular relevance to international football, the AFL has appointed David Matthews to the position of General Manager, Market Development, based in Sydney, New South Wales. Matthews has been General Manager of Game Development through the last six years which has seen a blossoming of international Aussie Rules - most of that due to numerous other factors but in part due to the positive role Matthews has played.

Significantly David Matthews will "continue to have responsibility for all of the AFL’s national and international development programs but will have additional responsibilities to manage and co-ordinate other areas of AFL operations in Sydney".

It seems a large portfolio just got larger. It remains to be seen whether this will further spotlight international development, or perhaps reduce its attention, or maybe make no substantive change. No word as yet on how the move will affect current Game Development staff based in Melbourne. The press release from the AFL follows:

The Central European footy scene has seem some exciting expansion in the past year or two, with a number of local competitions founded, inlcuding the Czech, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish and Italian domestic leagues profiled by WFN over the past few months.

In Austria, the Vienna Kangaroos and the Graz-based Styrian Downunder Dogs will play a seven match series for the national championship, kicking off in Graz in May.

Ben Chick from the Kangaroos and Martin Schittegg from the Downunder Dogs spoke to WFN about their plans for the upcoming season.

One topic that is always guaranteed to stir passionate debate is whether the AFL's rules regarding high contact are an improvement to the game. In the past decade there has been a crackdown on contact to the head, which is variously seen as vital to player welfare and encouraging parents to allow their kids to play the sport, through to an attack on the toughness and spectacular collisions that are part of the sport's great appeal.

Both sides have worthwhile points, but there is little doubt that to maintain a wide supporter and player base, Australian football has needed to change. The cowardly hit to the head was for too long tolerated, with seriously injured players having to accept the assault as "part of the game". In the 1970s it was common for a player, when delivering a hip and shoulder, to jump into the air, such that it was their hip and shoulder, but the other player's head. These days the majority of fans and commentators accept that a tighter interpretation of the rules, protecting against high contact, is worthwhile.

However the rules have been refined further, condemning any player who chooses, rather than go for the ball, to make body contact which ultimately results in high contact and injury. That includes unintentional high contact, even if it was caused by unexpected behaviour from that other player. But have the changes put the game on course to cause increasing numbers of serious injuries throughout all levels of the sport?

The Wolverhampton Wolverines will make their long-awaited debut on May 1st this year, with the home game against the Birmingham Uni Sharks to be the first-ever Australian rules football match in the city of Wolverhampton.

Wolverines founder Ian Mitchell says "We are playing at our home ground, Wolverhampton RUFC at 2pm. There is potential for this game to turn into a 3 or maybe even 4-way tournament, as I've asked Hull and Peterborough, the other two new teams in the region, to join us."

"We have started to train with the Gaelic Football side in Wolverhampton, St Mary's GAA, which will hopefully be beneficial for both clubs, in terms of sharing players, transferring skills and adding to numbers at training sessions. It is that club's 50 year anniversary this year and so we hope to celebrate that with an international rules game at some point over the summer."

The Wolverines are this year competing in the social division of England's new-look Central & North West league, together with the developing sides in Liverpool, Hull and Peterborough. The league will kick off on May 8th, with all clubs heading to Manchester for huge day of British Aussie Rules.

In February this year the Western Cape's Bayanda Sobetwa became the first South African to receive a scholarship to play in Australia for an extended period, with Kevin Sheedy's Team Greater Western Sydney offering him the opportunity of a lifetime. See Team GWS signs its first international player.

Team GWS has assembled their initial squad for the new (future) Western Sydney AFL club, and played its first official game on Saturday in Victoria's TAC Cup Under 18 competition. So it begged the question - where is Bayanda? worldfootynews.com spoke with AFL South Africa's Joel Kelly.

"Unfortunately there have been delays with Bayanda’s visa so he hasn’t left SA yet BUT that does allow him a final opportunity to represent South Africa on April 11 v AIS so he’s very excited about that..."

"He will be playing with Greater Western Sydney under Alan McConnell at TAC Cup U18 level this year with hope that he progresses well enough to stay on in 2011 and beyond".

Team GWS look set for a tough year. Few of the squad are likely to make the final AFL list for 2012, with the new club guaranteed premium draft picks and pre-selections in the next two years. That may be just as well, as the club's first official hit out was a savage 94 point loss to TAC Cup side the Northern Knights, at Blacktown Olympic Park in Western Sydney. Hopefully that will mean Sobetwa gets plenty of opportunity to show his talents.

Once again the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) - AFL Academy Squad, effectively Australia's Under 17 national side, will tour South Africa, conducting clinics and playing the South African Lions in Cape Town. Many of last year's squad have already made it on to AFL lists, indicating the tremendous talent in the team. The Lions will do well to be competitive, but it should be good preparation for the next International Cup.

Players from both sides will also be keen to perform well in front of new Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy and his staff, with the Aussies hoping to be drafted or pre-selected by the new AFL club, and the South Africans hoping to follow in the footsteps of Bayanda Sobetwa, already signed to a scholarship with Western Sydney.

Below is an AFL Press Release detailing the tour.

Finland's footy scene has grown rapidly over the past few years, with the Finland AFL being founded in 2006, the first domestic clubs being created in 2007, the Finland Icebreakers national team coming to Melbourne for the IC08 and the inaugural FAFL national league kicking off in 2009.

In 2010, the Helsinki Heatseekers, Salo Juggernauts and Turku Dockers will soon kick off the domestic competition's second season, with a small chance that the Espoo Roos will re-form and a new club in Vaasa will take the field.

Recruitment of new players has been very strong over the northern winter, with the clubs counting around 100 players on paper, with only 6 Australians. All three Finnish clubs have also been hard at work taking the game to local schools.

Finnish footy stalwart Kimmo Heikkilä spoke to WFN about the upcoming 2010 season.

The AFL has asked for expressions of interest from countries wishing to attend the 2011 International Cup, to be held in Australia in August 2011, almost certainly in Melbourne and possibly a Victorian country area.

While we await the official list, here is some speculation about possible attendees.

AFL PNG has had a long relationship now with Queensland footy, but it would be almost impossible to think that any local club would be the home to ten PNG footballers. However, the Coolangatta Blues are doing just that now, with the club hoping the talent from PNG will help them off the bottom of the AFLQ Pineapple Hotel Cup ladder (effectively the second tier of AFLQ's competition).

PNG players (from left) Ferdinand Musi, Ali Pinda, Henry Henry, Ogla Pena, Paul Philip, John Ikupu Junior, Emmanuel Tupia, Johnny Vogae, Freddy Peni (obscured) and Gagu Kaiyage will play for Coolangatta in 2010. (Picture: Scott Fletcher)

The Blues with new president Scott Reid, who is also the president of AFL-PNG, secured the services of the 10 players from PNG to boost the club after receiving the wooden spoon in 2009.

Coolangatta is a partner club with AFLPNG, and are more than happy to accommodate the players, who range in age from 17 to 24 years.

For more information, see PNG recruits to help Blues off bottom of the ladder on goldcoast.com.au.