World Footy News

The Surrey Park Panthers, a club playing in the fourth division of Melbourne's Eastern FL, will this year play host to a new league-within-a-club, aimed at introducing Indian migrants and students to Australian rules football.

Coordinating the project is WFN writer Ash Nugent, who says the competition is both about promoting Australian rules football, as well as building understanding between the Australian and Indian communities. The main target group for recruitment is Melbourne's large Indian student community, who come to Melbourne for tertiary studies after completing secondary school in India.

Initial sessions based around teaching basic skills, then kicking off a competition described as "a serious league but with a strong social element", that will also provide opportunities for players to move into senior football with the Panthers.

The Cincinnati Dockers, two-time defending USAFL Division 4 National Champions, have announced their schedule for the 2010 season.

They will kick off the season on the road at the John Harrell Memorial Cup Tournament in Louisville, KY on May 8th, play at home twice in a 7-match schedule, then return to Louisville in October for the 2010 USAFL Championships.

Based in Fairfield, Ohio and established in 1996, the Dockers are the oldest footy club of its kind in the United States. The match scheduled for September 25th this year between the Dockers and Kentucky's Louisville Kings will be the 14th anniversary of the first-ever Australian Rules Football match between two US teams.

The small town of Chichester, with a population of just over 20,000, is home to one of Britain's newest universities - the University of Chichester only being founded in 2005. The town is also home to one of Britain's newer university Australian football clubs, with the Chichester Cougars kicking off proceedings late last year.

Since being founded by members of the nearby Southampton Titans, the Cougars have played matches against Chippenham, Portsmouth and Birmingham Uni, recently breaking through for their first win.

Cougars founder Martyn Hinchey spoke to WFN about his club.

AFANA have given us details of how the North American TV coverage of AFL matches is shaping up for the 2010 season. Firstly there is no NAB Cup coverage. The primary US coverage will be via internet broadband on ESPN360.com. This is free if your ISP has a deal with ESPN [about 50% of US homes] or if you live on a university campus or US military base. AFANA have coverage schedules for virtually the entire AFL season and will be posting those soon.

Round 1 will have Richmond v Carlton, Geelong v Essendon and Western Bulldogs v Collingwood live. Three matches live per round for the balance of the AFL season.

ESPN360 will change names on 4 April to ESPN3 but otherwise remain the same just with an upgraded web page. ESPN2, a broadcast outlet, will carry 4 AFL matches during the course of the season including the Grand Final (live). The first match will be the Round 15 Geelong v Hawthorn match on a delayed basis. Two more will be selected at a later date.

The second AFL Middle East season is drawing to a close. The last round is still to be completed, but the Grand Finalists have already been determined. Ironically these two clubs, reigning champions the Dubai Heat and their neighbours the Abu Dhabi Falcons, will also face off in the final round.

AFLPNG’s Coca Cola Talent Path model has again delivered with six new signings to AFL Clubs under the international recruitment drive.

Richmond, Essendon, and the Brisbane Lions did not let the opportunity slip when attending PNG’s Coca Cola Talent Camp late in 2009, signing players to International Scholarships.

Gideon Simon (Western Highlands) and Nathan Malbak (Morobe) have been snapped up by the Richmond Tigers, Ezra Kautu (West New Britain) has been signed by the Brisbane Lions and Victor Rame (West New Britain) was taken by the Essendon Bombers (pictured below). Also recruited were Brendan Beno (Autonomous Region of Bougainville) who was wooed to the Lions, and Max Lavai (NCD) who was swooped on by the Bombers.

Beno and Kautu had actually been signed a few weeks earlier, but it was not widely publicised.

The World 18 that will head to Australia for the NAB AFL Under 16s has received a timely boost on two fronts. Recently retired Sydney Swans star Michael O'Loughlin has agreed to coach the inaugural team, having recently coached the Indigenous Boomerangs squad against South Africa. In addition, and no doubt in acknowledgement of the tough battle facing the World side, the AFL has slightly loosened the criteria for selection, in terms of age and opening the door slightly to Australian based immigrants.

When team Italy run out for the Harmony Cup at the Western Bulldogs' home base of Whitten Oval, former Bulldogs champions Danny Del-Re and Tony Liberatore will be among them.

Legendary tagger Liberatore won the Brownlow Medal in 1990 and went on to play 283 games for the Bulldogs before retiring in 2002. Del-Re is best known as Footscray's leading goal kicker in the 1992-93 seasons, kicking 8 goals against Geelong in the 1992 qualifying final. Joining them onfield will be Adam Iacobucci, who played a handful a games for Collingwood in 2005 and 2006.

Acting as mentor and coach for the team will be former Essendon ruckman Steven Alessio, who performed the same role for the team at the 2005 Multicultural Cup.

Team Coordinator Phil Spinella spoke to WFN about their preparations.

The Czech Australian Football League last year kicked off its first domestic season, with the Czech Lions squad divided into two teams dubbed the Marauders and the All-Stars.

In 2010 the CAFL has announced that Prague local league will expand to four teams, with the creation of the Prague Dragons and Prague Kings. The Marauders have been renamed the Prague Cats, and the side that played as the All-Stars in 2009 will run out as the Vinohrady Hawks.

CAFL president Mike Gouteff spoke to World Footy News about the development plans for footy in the Czech Republic.

The Croatian Association of Australian Football will shortly kick off its 2010 season, with local clubs Zagreb Hawks and Agram Power joined by new side the Velika Gorica Bombers.

Kolja Koracak from the CAAF says that after a draft is held in early March, the season will see each team play each other three times, with the team with the best record declared premiers. The inaugural Croatian Cup, a one-day 3-team tournament, will be held in autumn.

The Croatian national team has made some strong showings at European tournaments in the past few years, the high points being a runners-up at the 2008 EU Cup in Prague and hosting the 2009 EU Cup in the town of Samobor.

In 2010 the Knights will again be taking to the road, with both the 16-a-side European Championships in August and 9-a-side EU Cup in October booked into the calendar.

A new website has been launched at footycroatia.com where all news and info about Croatian footy will be found in future. A YouTube video from the Knights' preseason training is available here.

A side drawn from Melbourne's Indian and Sri Lankan communities is currently in training for the 2010 Harmony Cup, with around thirty keen players vying for a place in the final squad.

The side is predominantly born-and-bred in Melbourne, although there are a handful of international students also involved. Some of the Melbourne-based Indians who strengthened the Indian side at last year's International Cup will also be in the squad.

While the Indians won't have anyone with the AFL-level experience of some of their Harmony Cup opponents, team coordinator Vishnu Rishi is confident they will be a competitive outfit.

As befits a cultural and linguistic region that crosses numerous national borders, the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya (LFAC) became the first Tri-National footy league in the world last year, with clubs from the Spanish (southern) side, the French (northern) side and Andorra.

This year, the LFAC is planning to expand to five clubs, with the Cornellà Bocs, Belfry Valls, Andorra Crows and Perpignan Tigers to be joined by new club Cossetans Alt Camp.

The Catalans look set to continue as a stand-alone entity in European Aussie Rules, having been admitted as full members of the EAFA at the foundation meeting in Frankfurt in recognition of the fact that they had been operating as an independent organisation for a number of years and receive considerable support for their national representative team from the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.

The LFAC's Pere Casan Bonet says the Catalans were disappointed to miss out on the EU Cup in 2009 and are already taking steps towards mounting a challenge for both the 16-a-side European Championships in August and the 9-a-side EU Cup in October.