World Footy News

The 2010 Australian Football League season kicked off tonight with Carlton and Richmond doing battle at the MCG in front of a big crowd.

Both clubs have been strugglers for many years, but Carlton have slowly been rising up the ladder, and as expected were too strong for the Tigers, whose team included four first-gamers. Carlton were without suspended captain Chris Judd.

One of the common media questions leading into this season has been who will replace Brendan Fevola (traded to Brisbane after one controversial incident too many) as Carlton's major goal-scorer. Against Richmond the Blues appeared to share the focus between small forward Eddie Betts (3 goals) and tall targets Jarrad Waite (2) and Irishman Setanta O'hAilpin (3), while Chris Yarran also picked up 3 goals.

Collingwood's American recruit, Shae McNamara, has played his first two games of Australian football (outside of internal trials for Collingwood). The tall international rookie lined up for Collingwood's VFL side in both their trials over the last two weekends.

worldfootynews.com's sister site, usfootynews.com, has been keeping a close eye on McNamara's progress and recently reported on both matches. Apparently the recruit with a basketball and soccer background has already made huge improvement, making the best players in only his second trial game. Below is a snapshot of the US Footy News reports.

The AFLNZ Under 20 Championships were held for the second time on the weekend of March 13th and 14th in Wellington at Hutt Park, with the Under 20 teams from Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington, as well as the New Zealand Hawks Under 16 team taking part.

The final saw the Canterbury Cobras triumphant, running out 20-point victors over Auckland.

The new facilities at Hutt Park provided the teams with a fantastic surface and amenities, care of Hutt City Council and Stop Out Football Club, and the Wellington AFL will look to discuss further the opportunity to utilize the facility as their new home ground for the upcoming 2010 season commencing in September.

Once again, Hawthorn Football Club provided a presence with both Chris Pelchen, General Manager of Player Personnel and Strategy and Graham Wright, East Coast Recruiting Manager in attendance for the weekend.

Lebanon have emerged victorious from the 2010 Harmony Cup, defeating Albania by 49 points in the final at the Whitten Oval last Sunday. The tournament is a celebration of Australian football amongst Victoria's multi-cultural community.

The Lebanese were impressive all day, with a number of star players from high-level Melbourne suburban footy. Their first match saw them hold India scoreless, followed by solid wins over Greece and Israel, before their final match blitz.

The Albanians also made a big impact in their cup debut, easily accounting for Italy, Indonesia and Team Harmony in the pool rounds, cheered on by a large contingent of supporters who had made the trek out to Footscray.

Highlights for the crowd included a number of former AFL stars back on the playing field, Indonesia's impressive win as underdogs over Team Harmony in the first match of the day, India's Shri Purushtothaman playing out the tournament despite a broken jaw and football legend and long-time international footy supporter Ron Barassi being on hand to congratulate the winners.

The Dubai Heat have again been crowned AFL Middle East Premiers, cementing their position as the most successful Australian Football club in the region. Whilst their competitor in the Grand Final, the Abu Dhabi Falcons, were missing a few star players due to injury and other commitments, ultimately it was a solid effort from the Heat that won them the match.

In the AFL Middle East season proper, each team plays each other once and the Falcons-Heat contest was scheduled for the final round. This match had gone down to the wire; the Heat edging out the Falcons by a slender two points. Whilst the victor remained the same in the Grand Final, the score line didn’t - Dubai this time registering a 54 point victory.

The emerging PNG Mosquitoes, playing for the second weekend in a row during the Cairns pre-season tournament, certainly proved that their 10 day camp was of immense benefit. The Young Mosquitoes won three from four, with a crushing win over South Cairns in their final hit out.

With a strong core of senior and junior players already under scholarship at South Queensland clubs, a new and younger Mosquito outfit will be seen in their fourth tilt at the International Cup as they endeavour to go back-to-back in the IC11.

The PNG outfit, made up of 6 senior Mosquito members and a group of talented but raw youngsters all in their teens, improved rapidly over 10 days.

AFL Asia Pacific manager Andrew Cadzow said it was a learning experience for many of the players. "For most of them, even having green grass and a good set-up at Cazalys, they are used to playing on dirt pitches and cricket pitches so it was culturally very different for those younger boys,’’ he said.

"It’s a pretty young side, our best 20 players are still in Brisbane playing, so it was really good for the young boys to see how well they went.’’

The Melbourne print media today reported that a review into women's footy commissioned by the AFL could lead to the creation of a national Women's League.

As well as the review into women's footy at junior and grassroots level, Hawthorn are reportedly close to signing an agreement with an existing Melbourne women's footy club to become the Hawks' women's team.

Victorian Women's Football League president Debbie Lee said she would like to see AFL-affiliated women's sides playing curtain-raisers at AFL matches, saying "Initially it might be a Melbourne-based competition with four or five AFL clubs supporting women's footy, and then develop into a national competition where each state is represented. That's my dream."

The article can be read at the Age newspaper website here.

As previously reported, the AFL is allowing the inaugural World XVIII youth squad to be supplemented by "multicultural" youths born overseas who have been living in Australia for no more than 5 years and have at least one parent born overseas.

Yesterday (Sunday) saw trials in Melbourne for eligible players.

It was also announced that two players from China will play in the World Team and will train at Monash University in the lead-up to the Under 16 championships in July.

The AFL's General Manager National and International Development, David Matthews, said the AFL's overseas talent programs had increasingly identified young athletes who had the potential to play AFL football at the elite level, with most prospects coming from Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Japan, Fiji, Tonga, Nauru and Samoa (spanning both the World and South Pacific regions), and that other talented athletes could also be identified from affiliated leagues in Canada, the USA, China and continental Europe.

International students across Victoria will be given an opportunity to experience Australian Football through a unique ticket offer announced by the AFL.

The AFL, in partnership with Monash University and La Trobe University, will make 5000 tickets available to international students for the Melbourne-Brisbane game at the MCG on April 24.

Melbourne and Brisbane will also play the first AFL game in China later this year, battling it out for the Kaspersky AFL Cup (otherwise known as the `Shanghai Showdown’) at Jiangwan Sports Centre in Shanghai on October 17.

Rounding out the field at this year's Harmony Cup will be a combined side playing under the name "Team Harmony". The team includes players from Israel, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Africa, UK, USA, PNG and Samoa, including PNG's former AFL star Mal Michael.

Tournament director Brian Clarke explains that Team Harmony was thrown together at the last minute, following the withdrawal of Team Africa. "A trial was held at Gosch's Paddock in Melbourne on Sunday 14 March, and 22 people turned up desperate to make the squad."

"At the same time, India was training at the opposite end of the ground and were being filmed by Channel 7. Both teams were very keen for a hit out before the Harmony Cup and so it was quickly agreed to arrange a scratch match on the day."

There are versions of the game played pre-season in Sydney for 6-a-side and 13-a-side, and this year the Sydney Women’s AFL are kicking off their season with a festival of fun, events and a 7-a-side tournament.

From the creative minds of two former NSW state Reps, Lisa Roper and Kerry Taylor, these girls have created a day long event with some modified rules to encourage a free-running style of play. “As we have found at National level, the top states play a very hand-ball/running style of football which we are trying to develop more and more in Sydney” says Roper who is also one of the new Development Managers for Sydney Women’s AFL.

PNG Mosquitoes made their first appearance in an Australian club tournament last Saturday, going through the AFL Cairns pre-season lightning tournament at Cazalys Stadium with one win and one loss.

The Mosquitoes, lead by former AFL star Mal Michael in his first appearance for his homeland's national team, came up short against the Port Douglas Crocs, but defeated the North Cairns Tigers in their two appearances. North Cairns will play in the competition's final next weekend, having finished top of their pool, ahead of the Mosquitoes only on percentage.

North Cairns' coach Brett Oakley said in an interview on the AFL Cairns website that his players had taken time to adjust to PNG’s unique brand of football. “All of the players were saying that they were so quick and hard at the football, and it’s hard to compete against them because they play a bit different style of football. They're very talented, that’s for sure.”

The final will see North Cairns take on Centrals Trinity Beach this Saturday at 3pm. PNG will take on South Cairns in the curtain-raiser at 1.30pm. Full scores from the pool rounds follow.