World Footy News

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.

Recently a whole new lot of talented AFLPNG Coca Cola Talent Path Scholarship participants left Papua New Guinea to show their wares in a variety of Queensland competitions.

With the Coca Cola Talent Path Program already producing four AFLPNG players who are now listed to AFL Clubs (Meli, Susuve, Barry and Labi) the 12 unattached players sent down on Australian-based scholarships will be aware that opportunities may arise, especially with the formation of the Greater Western Sydney organisation under the eye of the globetrotting Kevin Sheedy and the very well-credentialed Graeme Allan, formerly in charge of recruitment at Collingwood and Brisbane. In fact, rumours are that several more AFL signings are imminent.

After their debut season last year, mainly dedicated to the development of the Italia Azzurri national team, culminating with the participation at the EU Cup in Samobor (Croatia) in October 2009, the AFL Italia have worked hard during the off-season and have come up with the numbers to begin a 4-team national league in 2010.

Nicola Giampaolo and Armando Colombo made the official announcement on a meeting held in Busto Arsizio on Saturday February 13th, just before the National Training Camp in Milano.

The 4 teams are to be based in Milan, Rome, Genoa and Lugano, the last of those cities being located just over the border in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. The home and away season will see the teams play each of their opponents twice, followed by a final-four system with the two best-placed teams on the ladder having a double chance.

Grand Final day will be September 4th in Roma, and the Italian Aussie Rules community are sure that it will be a great event with a good turnout.

Team GWS, the planned new AFL club for Western Sydney, has put the call out to the public to help decide its name.

To coincide with last night’s historic match between Sydney and Carlton at the club's future home, Blacktown Olympic Park, Team GWS has unveiled its campaign ‘NameTheTeam’ and associated website NameTheTeam. The new club is also looking for advice on its colours.

The website offers suggestions of Giants, Rangers, Pride and Stallions, but also allows visitors to send in their own suggestions. No doubt they'll receive plenty of sarcastic ideas like West Sydney Bogans, but hopefully some create locally inspired possibilities will emerge. Or who knows, maybe one of our international readers will come up with the name of the AFL's 18th club.

New Zealand national newspaper, the Sunday Star-Times, recently profiled the work of AFL NZ CEO Rob Vanstam in a very positive article for the game in New Zealand. The interview discussed raising the sport's profile and providing pathways for young Kiwis. Amongst Vanstam's comments was "But to get a higher profile, if we've got guys from New Zealand who go on to play AFL in Australia, that's certainly going to promote the sport in this country and make it a viable option or alternative to rugby."

For more, read Aussie Rules chases Kiwis in tight shorts.

Over recent years, the AFL Queensland's various divisions have seen the likes of Canada's Scott Fleming, Sweden's Mattias Ewald and too many PNG youngsters to mention. Additionally, it has seen the lrish players such as Colm Begley and Pearce Hanley running around for the Brisbane Lions' reserves team.

The latest international to join the list is Bryan Dragus, a big American who, after one season with the Golden Gate Roos representative side and the GGAFL's Marin Mavericks, joins the Western Magpies - a club based on the west side of Brisbane.

The following story is courtesy of the Western Magpies.

The Western Magpies have signed 24 year old Bryan Dragus from Los Angeles California. Following his first training session for the club on Monday Night after arriving on Saturday the Magpies will be including the 198cm 98kg American on its 2010 QAFL Senior List.

He was identified by former Sherwood player Leigh Barnes who is involved the Golden Gate Roos who Dragus played for last season in the US. Former Western Magpies president Matt Vowles saw Dragus play for the Roos while on holidays in the States last year and came back spruiking about his raw talent and ability to club officials.

Last month New Zealand born Hawks premiership defender Trent Croad retired. Grandson of All Black (NZ Rugby) Eric Boggs, he had not played since the 2008 grand final, when he broke his foot in the second quarter in the win over Geelong. Hawthorn gave their star every chance to recover but the injury proved persistent.

Croad retires having won All-Australian honours in 2005 and was selected in International Rules Series to play in 1999, 2000, and 2005.

The 2010 International Rules Series has been confirmed for October 2010, the Australian Football League (AFL) and the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) announced today.

AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou and GAA Director General Paraic Duffy today said they had spoken on a number of occasions since the New Year and the two organisations had agreed to resume the series in October, with two Tests to be played in Ireland on October 23 (Limerick) and October 30 (Dublin).

The series was not played in 2009 after the impact of the world economic situation in early 2009 prompted the AFL to ask the GAA to agree to defer the series for 12 months.

The USAFL has announced the 14th Annual National Championships will be held in Louisville Kentucky over the weekend of October 9th-10th, 2010.

While this may not be news to some (close readers of the USFooty website in 2009 would have seen that Louisville would host the tournament again), today's announcement has confirmed it as fact.

While there will be some, particularly those geographically distant to Louisville that would have hoped for a new location after playing there in 2007, there is also the positive certainty of returning to a venue that has previously sucessfully hosted the event which continues to grow.

Further details from the announcement can be read below.

Whilst 9-a-side footy has become a widely-used development tool around the world, particularly in the context of Metro Footy in the USA or 9s comps in Europe such as the EU Cup, footy in Australia has largely remained the preserve of 18-a-side purists.

However, there are some signs that Aussies are opening their eyes to the potential of the smaller format game, with the Campbelltown Blues holding a 13-a-side pre-season cup on March 13th.

The Campbelltown AFC, a member of the AFL Sydney's Premier Division, offered entry to all clubs in all divisions of the Sydney suburban league. The reponse exceeded expectations, so much so that they had to turn away some interested clubs.

Games will be played 13-a-side, with 7 interchange, and all other rules as per AFL Sydney AFL competition. Official NSW/ACT AFL umpires will be officiating and the matches will be 2 x 15 minute halves, with a 6 minute halftime break.

The Campbelltown Council have undertaken major works to completely resurface and install a new sprinkler system at the Blues' home ground Monarch Oval, with the club rating the new facilities as the best suburban Aussie Rules ground in Sydney.

For more information, see the article AFL Carnival Test for Upgraded Oval from the Camden Chronicle newspaper.

The Iceland Ravens made their debut appearance at last year's EU Cup in Croatia, impressing on debut with their almost all-local side pushing the Netherlands and Germany and having a solid win over Italy. Since then, the Icelanders have been training indoors over the northern winter and are planning for the IceAFL's first domestic season.

Icelandic Aussie Rules stalwart Friðgear "Fritz" Ásgeirsson was recently contacted by a group hoping he'd be able to help them also start the sport of rugby union in Iceland. Both sports are at a similar stage of development in the country, with the Aussie Rules club having about 25 regulars currently training and the rugby club getting around 20 players to its first training session last autumn.

Fritz has been appointed chairman of the new organisation, and says the partnership would see the groups share facilities such as grounds, as well as cross-promotion and a schedule that allows people to play both sports.